How to Pray the Psalms.
"What's prayer like for you?" While my pastoral question comes from a place of care and curiosity, it often falls like a judgmental hammer. Its followed by several responses. An awkward, uncomfortable stumbling about or a dismissive brush to the side, "it's fine," are not uncommon. Occasionally it's met with disarming humor, "what prayer life?" or brutal honesty, "meh, it's pretty non-existent." The reality is I rarely meet a person satisfied with their prayer life.
Chances are, you are one of those dissatisfied people. And if you aren't, there's a good chance you will be at some point. But what if you could inject some real life into your praying? I think you can. Start by praying the Psalms each day.
Here's how:
Start today. I get it you're busy. Your schedule? Packed. You are tired, and the house is a mess. But if we believe life is about living in communion with God, what's more important, clean dishes or prayer? Carving out a set apart time to do this can help transform the remainder of your day into one of prayer. In other words, ignoring the dishes and slowing down to pray can mean that prayer enters your doing of the dishes later.
Create space—slow, quiet, unhurried, uninterrupted time. Put away your phone (use a hardcopy Bible or an iPad). Find a quiet place, one free from demands on you. Give yourself space to breathe, think, listen, and be still. Take a moment to remind your heart it's in God's presence. There's no exact right length of time. More is usually better, but start small with an intention to expand this time as you go.
Pick a Psalm. Some people have seven psalms on repeat, a psalm for Monday, a psalm for Tuesday, etc. Others read through the psalter in order. I'd start in Psalm 1 and go in order if this is all new to you. If you find a psalm particularly striking, perhaps this develops into one you revisit each Monday, etc.
Read the psalm a verse at a time. Read slowly. Read out loud if possible. Read the words to God as you set your heart in God's presence.
Your mind will wander. That's ok. Just return your heart's gaze to God when it happens (and it will happen).
If a verse or moment strikes you, pause to contextualize that in prayer, praying that verse or idea back to God in your own words.
Be mindful of where you are. Are you distant from God? Anxious or stressed? Burdened or feeling oppressed? Joyful and thankful? Take whatever disposition to the source of all love, joy, peace, hope, and comfort. Is there a part of the psalm that speaks directly to your need? Pray that to God in genuine yearning. Is there a part that feels foreign to where your heart is? Ask God to spark hope or praise or delight in your heart.
For example, if I'm praying Psalm 63, where it says, "earnestly I seek you," I might turn that into a confession. "God, I don't seek you. Not like I want to. Not like I should. Will you have mercy on me? Will you help me seek you with all my soul, reminding me there is mercy for me when I don't?
Pray anything else that the verse brings to mind at the moment as you pray the psalm to God.
When you reach the end of the psalm or section, you've set apart to pray for the day, pause and spend a moment in silence.
We often think of prayer as speaking, but there is a rich history of sitting in God's presence in still, unhurried silence.
As your mind wanders, bring it back to God. This is time and space to simply be with God.
When your protected, unhurried time is up, you're done! Come back and do the same thing tomorrow and the next day.
Revisit the psalm throughout the day. Re-read it, or consider some of the ideas you encountered in it. Speak these things to God. Speak them to yourself. So much of what makes the psalms beautiful is that they are both God's words to us and our words to God. Let that chunk of time you fought to protect infuse the rest of your day with an awareness of God's nearness and presence.
That's it. You'll read. You'll pray. You'll speak to God. And He'll speak to you. The Bible will start to read you. And your spiritual life will start to look a whole lot more like Jesus'.
This won't feel miraculous, at least not always. But the rhythm of regular prayer tethers us in ways that, over time, will shape and transform our affections and interior lives by being in God's presence.
Lastly, don’t do this alone. Let us know if you’re doing this. We’d love to pray with you, for you and alongside you. Need help? We’re here and we’d love to help. We'd also love you to carry this practice into your HUB groups and families. Imagine if we incorporated a communal praying of the psalms into our routines of sharing life?
Finally, here are some great resources.
“Praying the Bible”
Zack McCoy
The post you just read on praying the Psalms was adapted from Zack’s original post on how to pray the scriptures from several years ago.
Praying with the Psalms: A Year of Daily Prayers and Reflections on the Words of David
Eugene Peterson
This devotional divides the Psalms up into chunks so that you pray through a different section, in order, each day.
Prayer
Hans Urs von Balthassar
Not Psalm specific but perhaps one of the richest and most beautiful theologies of prayer written.
Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer
Eugene Peterson
An excellent resource on how and why we pray the Psalms.
The Lord of the Psalms
Patrick Miller
A great resource on understanding the theology of Psalms. This will help orient you to the world and language of the psalter.
