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Summary of comments of this office by Dom Schuster, in his work L'année liturgique.
In the succession of Introits after Pentecost, the strange way in which the order of psalms is often interrupted is thought provoking. For instance, the Fifth Sunday takes its Introit from Psalm 26, the Sixth Sunday from Psalm 27; then there is a gap of nineteen psalms before the Seventh Sunday, which takes its Introit from Psalm 46. The Eighth Sunday borrows its Introit from the forty-seventh, then comes another gap of five psalms interrupted by Psalm 53 for the Ninth Sunday; then comes the Tenth Sunday with Psalm 45, the Eleventh with Psalm 67, the 12th with Psalm 69 and so on.
Is there an explanation for this anomaly? Is it possible that the fourth and fifth ferial days as well as Saturday originally made up part of the series? or, before St. Gregory the Great, was there a proper Introit for every day, such that the gaps we observe now would be the result of the elimination, pure and simple, of the daily Masses of the Sacramentary and the Antiphonal.
For lack of documentation, we are only groping in the dark, while we concede that the proposed hypotheses are not devoid of probability.
The Introït is drawn, as we have seen, from Psalm 46, which serves as a prelude of universal messianic redemption: "Clap your hands, all ye nations: shout unto God with the voice of joy. For the Lord is most high, He is terrible; He is a great King over all the earth."
The Gradual is the same as the one executed after the first reading of the Wednesday after the Fourth Sunday of Lent. It is taken from Psalm 33. The psalmist, by the prophetic light of the Spirit, sees the future Christian generations which, by the intermediary of Christ his son, will trace their lineage back to him as the head of their race, to the patriarch of the redeemed, to the depository of the divine promises, to be instructed in the ways of justice.
The verse of the Alleluia repeats the antiphon of the Introit. The expression "clap your hands" in honor of God may well signify the need to accompany by good works the praise that we sing to God with our lips.
The Offertory of today is taken from Daniel (3:40): Ananias, being with his two companions in the fiery furnace, and considering that it is no longer possible for them to offer to God the legal sacrifice of lambs and beeves, the temple having been destroyed, offers Him the spiritual sacrifice of faith and martyrdom.
The antiphon for Communion is taken from Psalm 30: "Bow down Thy ear, make haste to deliver me." God's bowing down the ear signifies condescendence, and, consequently, the gratuitous nature of divine grace."
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