Adoration is the end of sacrifice, which is perfected in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. By uniting ourselves to Christ we are able to render to God the homage and worship and adoration He is due. The admixture of reverence and adoration forms the ground of the "fear of the Lord," which recognizes His supremacy over all things. The Psalmist prophesies His two comings in the Incarnation and the Second Coming, wherein the earth is moved at His presence, and we are likewise to be "moved" as we approach the Blessed Sacrament of the altar which contains His true and entire presence.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit psalmgifs.substack.com

The Psalmist foresees the conversion of the Gentiles and their incorporation into the Church by means of their bringing sacrifices to the Lord, which culminates in and is fulfilled in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit psalmgifs.substack.com

The promise of the Gospel is prophesied by the Psalmist, who calls the Gentiles to the Lord in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This incorporation into Christ through the sacrament of Baptism is the end result of the grace lavished upon man by our Lord's sacrifice, and our return is to give unto Him the gifts He bestows upon us, the "glory and honor" of which the Psalmist speaks.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit psalmgifs.substack.com

In confession we tell the truth about God and about ourselves, and penance thus conforms us to the likeness of Christ, Who in humility humbled Himself for our sake. This confessions makes us beautiful, which brings us "before God," as it were. The Psalmist then draws this forward to the Beatific Vision in which are found "holiness and majesty." God's graciousness towards us lifts us to those heights as we cooperate with His grace in penance, thus bringing what is started in confession to culmination.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit psalmgifs.substack.com

The Psalmist further contrasts the gods of the nation with the Lord who made the heavens, noting that the gods of the nations are in reality demons. Idolatry is the offering of sacrifice to demons, whether in terms of gods made of stone or metal or the modern ones comprised of totalizing ideologies. This unworthy and pagan sacrifice stands in sharp contrast to the One Holy Sacrifice of or Lord offered in the Mass, which surpasses all things. By uniting ourselves to this sacrifice we offer worthy homage to God and avoid the worship of devils.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit psalmgifs.substack.com

The Psalmist pulls back to give a macroscopic view of God's greatness, the wonder of which is beyond human comprehension. In our language for God we often must speak apophatically so as to avoid projecting our own limitations upon Him. In the Incarnation the greatness of God and the lowliness of human nature bridges the chasm between apophatic and cataphatic, for in Our Lord Jesus Christ God has a face, and the fullness of divinity is made manifest in the Incarnation of the Word. This reality is present in the Holy Eucharist, which brings to fruition the Psalmist's words.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit psalmgifs.substack.com

Declare his glory among the Gentiles: his wonders among all people. (Psalm 95:3 DR)

There is no salvation outside the Church (extra ecclesiam nulla salus), which is the promise that there is salvation inside the Church. This reality is undergirded by the Church as the Mystical Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the Head of that same Body and the fulness of truth Incarnate and the only way to the Father as the Way, the Truth and the Life.

The Church's proclamation of the Gospel is thus a mission born out of her freedom from captivity and vivified by the Holy Ghost. She is to declare God's glory and wonder among all nations, whom God has reconciled to Himself to the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the failure of her members to do so (especially those with the authority to preach and teach) or their preaching of a Gospel other than that fullness of her doctrines and dogmas leaves them accursed, as St. Augustine will describe.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit psalmgifs.substack.com

The foundation of the Church is not merely her teaching but Christ and His apostles, whose authority has been handed down throughout the ages of the Church. The Church as a body celebrates the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass through her ordained ministers, who act in persona Christi in that offering, in which our Lord offers the one Sacrifice as High Priest. This reality begins to flesh out the Psalmist's words in which the Church is built through her proclamation of the Gospel, which is of the Lord Who is the Eternal Day that she witnesses "from to day to day." This proclamation is indeed "good news" because it is about the freedom from captivity to sin.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit psalmgifs.substack.com

The Psalmist uses music as a metaphor for the building of the coming kingdom of Christ, His Mystical Body the Church. Songs and hymns have been used throughout Church history both for good and for ill, but the “new song” of the Church accompanies her establishment as concretized in her hierarchy and her individual members. St. Augustine sees in this new song of the Church a moral corollary to the transformation that is wrought in her members, for the old song of the flesh is replaced by that of charity as poured forth into the heart by the Holy Ghost.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit psalmgifs.substack.com