ARGUMENT

ARG. THOMAS. That CHRIST is the inhabiter of Saints, the hearer of the Church. The voice of the Church. CHRIST speaketh to the FATHER concerning the Jews, and to the Church which hath received the heritage of Paradise, not of the old Testament, as the title of the Psalm proves.

VEN. BEDE. To the end: for her that obtaineth the inheritance. That is for the Church, who, by the Resurrection of CHRIST, has received the gift of spiritual good; and who herself is sometimes called the heritage of the LORD, since by His precious Blood she hath been redeemed. Whence it is written in the 2nd Psalm: “Desire of Me, and I shall give thee the Gentiles for thine heritage.” All this Psalm is spoken in the person of the Church. In the first section she desireth that her prayer may be heard, and showeth how heretics and schismatics are shut out from the gifts of the LORD. In the second, she maketh request that, through the understanding of Holy Scripture, she may be led in a right path to that happy country, from whence she knoweth that they who are treacherous will be for ever shut out. In the last she setteth forth the rewards of the blessed, that in one and the same discourse she may convert the wicked by the prediction of their punishment, and excite the good by the promise of their reward.

SYRIAC PSALTER. A prayer of David in the person of the Church when in the morning he went up to the temple of the LORD.