From the early Church Fathers to now.
6 Patristic · 1 Jewish · 1 Catholic
“Sacrifice and oblation thou didst not desire; but thou hast pierced ears for me. Burnt offering and sin offering thou didst not require:”
“Here the psalmist introduces the person of Christ, who says, By the will of the Father he came and completed the things that are written concerning him in the law and the prophets. And he declared his righteousness in a great church, which is in all peoples and is more excellent than that of the law.”
“He calls the "roll of the book" every divinely inspired Scripture, both the legal and the prophetic. In these Scriptures things are written concerning the memory of the Savior among us. The psalmist calls it a roll because everything is summed up into one.”
“"Burnt-offerings also for sin hast Thou not required." "Then said I, Lo, I come!" [Psalm 40:7]. It is time that what "was promised should come;" because the signs, by means of which they were promised, have been put away. And indeed, Brethren, observe these put away; those fulfilled. Let the Jewish nation at this time show me their priest, if they can! Where are their sacrifices? They are brought to an end; they are put away now. Should we at that time have rejected them? We do reject them now; because, if you chose to celebrate them now, it were unseasonable; unfitting at the time; incongruous. You are still making promises; I have already received! There has remained to them a certain thing for them to celebrate; that they might not remain altogether without a sign. ...In such a case then are they; like Cain with his mark. The sacrifices, however, which used to be performed there, have been put away; and that which remained unto them for a sign like that of Cain, hath by this time been fulfilled; and they know it not. They slay the Lamb; they eat the unleavened bread. "Christ has been sacrificed for us, as our Passover." Lo, in the sacrifice of Christ, I recognise the Lamb that was slain! What of the unleavened bread? "Therefore," says he, "let us keep the feast; not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of wickedness" (he shows what is meant by "old;" it is "stale" flour; it is sour), "but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." They have continued in the shade; they cannot abide the Sun of Glory. We are already in the light of day. We have "the Body" of Christ, we have the Blood of Christ. If we have a new life, let us "sing a new song, even a hymn unto our God." "Burnt offerings for sin Thou didst not desire. Then said I, Lo, I come!"”
“That is, it is written about me in the beginning of the Psalter: "Blessed is the man," so I may do your will.”
“The apostolic exhortation sings a similar note to this, "I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, the worship according to reason." In place of the rites of the Law, the Lord required us to consecrate our limbs. Now, seeing your grace, he says, I offered myself to you in the words "Here I am." This statement, of course, blessed Paul applies to Christ the Lord, and rightly so: he is our nature's first fruits, and it is fitting for him in the first place to speak for us and in himself to prefigure in type what is appropriate in our case.”
“This verse embraces the mysteries of the Old and New Testaments, for it says that at a later time God no longer accepted the sacrifices and offerings which were earlier being performed to honor him through the sacrifice of cattle which fed the priests. It is certainly true that he considered it fitting to accept these kinds of offerings, since there seemed to be a certain prefiguration of the body of Christ through them. But once the Messiah himself, the Lord Christ, who had been foretold, arrived and offered himself for us all as the compassionate Victim, it was unnecessary that such a preliminary figure as the Old Testament sacrifices still endure, now that the truth had reached fulfillment.… The body which was previously promised through the images of the sacrifices … was now fulfilled by his coming.”
“You desired neither sacrifice nor meal offering on the day of the giving of the Torah, as the matter that is stated (in Exod. 19:5): “And now, if you will earnestly hearken to My voice, etc.,” and likewise (in Jer. 7:22) Scripture states: “For neither did I speak with your forefathers nor did I command them, etc., concerning a burnt offering or a sacrifice.” I said, (Lev. 1:2) “If...from among you,” but I did not require it as an obligation to burden you. The daily sacrifices and the additional sacrifices are only to bring Me pleasure, that I ordained and My will was performed, but it is a small matter. You dug ears for me saying, “Hearken to My voice.” You dug You made them hollow [enabling me] to hear.”
“"Then I said, Behold, I come." Here he assigns the cause of the preaching of divine works from his own side, showing his resolve. And first he shows his resolve. Second, he shows it to be in conformity with the divine will, at "In the head of the book." These words someone might wish to explain of David, and connect them thus: as if to say, behold, I come, by a spiritual approach to you; and, "In the head of the book it is written of me." "As head among the tribes of Israel I have established you." But because the Apostle explains this of Christ, let us also explain it of him. And therefore when he says "Then," he designates the cause and necessity of Christ's coming: because the sacrifices of the old covenant were not acceptable to God: because Heb. 7: "The law brought nothing to perfection." And "it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins," Heb. 10. And therefore it was necessary that the true sacrifice come and be manifested. And therefore he says, "Behold, I come," namely through the incarnation. And he says "Behold," as if to say, I am at hand because of the nearness: Is. 14: "His time is near to come": Ps. 79: "Stir up your might and come." And this resolve is in conformity with the divine will; hence he says, "In the head of the book." The book is Christ. A book is an instrument in which the conceptions of the heart are contained; in Christ, however, are the conceptions of the divine intellect: Col. 2: "In him are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God." The head of the book is God the Father: 1 Cor. 11: "The head of Christ is God." Therefore, "in the head of the book," that is, in the will of God the Father, "it is written," that is, it is ordained "of me" that I should come. Or otherwise: there is the book of predestination, which is the book of life: Ps. 68: "Let the condemned be blotted out of the book of life, or of the living." In this book all who are to be saved are written, but in order: because at the head of this book the Savior is written, and all are written through him: Rom. 8: "Whom he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son," etc. Eph. 1: "He chose us before the foundation of the world, that we might be holy"; as if to say, it is not written of Christ as of others, but "in the head of the book." Or, "in the head of the book" of the Psalms, because the first Psalm was written about Christ: "Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly," etc. Thus he shows his resolve to come.”
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.