“Its matter is universal; while each of the
canonical books has it spsecial material, this one ranges over the material of
all theology. ... Everything that bears on the end of the Incarnation is
expressed in thsi book in so clear a way that one might believe oneself face to
face with the Gospel, not with prophecy. ... This plenitude is the reason why
the Church returns ceaselessly tot he Psalter, for it contains all Scripture.
...
The mode of sacred Scripture is in effect
multiple. It can be narrative as in historical books; commemorative,
exhortative, and prescriptive as in the Law, the Prophets, or in the Wisdom
Books; disputative, as in Job or Saint Paul; deprecative or laudatory, as here.
In effect, everything that in the other books is dealt with according to a
precise mode is here found under the form of praise and of prayer. ... It is
from this that the book takes its title: The
beginning of the Book of Hymns, which is to say, of the soliloquies of the
prophet David about Christ. The hymn is a praise of God under the form of a
song. The song is the exaltation of the soul over the subject of eternal
realities that are expressed by the voice. It teaches therefore to praise God
in joy. The soliloquy is the personal colloquy of man with God or, indeed, only
with himself; and this is necessary for whoever praises or prays.
As to the end of this Scripture, it is prayer,
elevation of the soul toward God. ... It is possible for the soul to elevate
itself toward God in four ways: by admiring the greatness of his power ... the
elevation of faith; by extending itself toward the excellence of its eternal
beatitude ... the elevation of hope; by attaching itself strictly to divine
goodness and its holiness ... elevation of charity; by imitating the divine
justice and its action ... the elevation of justice. [These different points
are insinuated into the various Psalms], this is why Saint Gregory says that if
the Psalmody is accompanied by the intention of the heart, it prepares in the
soul a path for God, who infuses into it the mysteries of prophecy or the grace
of compunction.
from
Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, vol. 1
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