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Having received an excellent education at Upsal and abroad, in 1685 Jesper Swedberg was ordained and appointed first chaplain to the King's regiment of Life Guards, later royal chaplain at Stockholm. To the soldiers he taught the catechism and to King Charles XI he preached boldly without fear or favor, yet so pleasing the King that their Majesties stood as godfather and godmother to one of his daughters. "Ask of me," said the King, "what you will and you shall have it." But Swedberg, as he says, never asked the least thing for himself or his family, using his influence only for the appointment of faithful men to office. For a time he was the beloved pastor of a small parish, then on the King's insistence became Professor, and afterward Rector of the University at Upsal. By the King's orders he prepared and published, largely at his own expense, a revision of the Swedish Bible, which was however suppressed by the jealousy of the clergy. At Upsal where Emanuel passed his childhood Swedberg during several professorships and as Dean of the cathedral devoted himself to the well-being ​of the students, and so successfully that he was constantly cheered by their affection, and he could say after his ten years' life with them that in all that time the King had never received a single bad report of them.

In 1703 this pleasant life at Upsal was interrupted, to Swedberg's entire surprise, by his receiving from the young King Charles XII an appointment as Bishop of Skara, whither he then removed and settled at Brunsbo. He was now fifty years old, and here he remained till his death at eighty-two, never until the last few years neglecting to officiate in public worship. He preached indefatigably from the Gospels and the Epistles, his sermons always flowing without any straining from the text; for, said he, "then God recognizes His own Word." But though always making the duties of his sacred office his chief care, the good bishop was a devoted husband and father. He had married in 1683 Sara Behm, of good family, her father long holding the same office later held by her son Emanuel, that of Assessor in the College of Mines. By a previous marriage to the then Dean of Upsal she had inherited a considerable fortune, which later proved ​of great assistance in the support of Bishop Swedberg's family and in his numerous publications.