Praying Through the Psalms
5 Psalms a Day
a Biblical Meditation/Devotional Prayer
by Don Whitney
Embedded Files
Read five Psalms (or 1 or more from the set of 5) > Meditate on one Psalm > Pray out of that Psalm
What Do You Do with Five Psalms a Day?
Read through five Psalms a day, then simply choose whichever one seems most relevant to you in the moment, to meditate on and pray through it.
Why Focus on The Psalms?
"As a whole, the psalms comprise the best place in Scripture from which to pray Scripture. I base that on the original purpose for which God inspired the psalms. The book of Psalms—which means “book of praises” in Hebrew—was the songbook of Israel. The psalms were inspired by God for the purpose of being sung to God... In other words, God gave the Psalms to us so that we would give the Psalms back to God. No other book of the Bible was inspired for that expressed purpose...
The Psalms also work so well in prayer because there’s a psalm for every sigh of the soul. You’ll never go through anything in life in which the root emotion is not found in one or more of the Psalms. Thus the Psalms put into expression that which is looking for expression in our hearts." - Don Whitney
How Do You Meditate on a Psalm?
"Meditating on the Word of God is contemplating, fixing our eyes (and necessarily our attention) on, considering it very carefully, thoughtfully, and thoroughly, and uttering it in the mind over and over again." - Jack Wellman
Let me suggest a few practices to help you do a Biblical Meditation on your chosen Psalm or Psalm verse:
Write A Personalized Paraphrase Of It (using "I" statements)
Sing It, Pray It, Own It (Singing The Scriptures)
RWSSP/Recipe (Singing The Scriptures)
Pray Out of the Content/Context of the Psalm, As It Related to Your Life - See video examples of how to pray out of the Bible in Praying The Bible (includes examples from Psalm 23, 37, & 67)
How Do You Pray the Bible or the Psalms?
"Praying the Bible means talking to God about what comes to mind as you read the Bible. Usually you might read the passage first, then go back and pray through what you just read. So, for instance, if today you turned to Psalm 23 in your devotional reading, after completing it you would come back to verse 1 and pray about what occurs to you as you read “The Lord is my shepherd.” You might thank the Lord for being your shepherd, ask him to shepherd you in a decision that’s before you, entreat him to cause your children to love him as their shepherd too, and pray anything else that comes to mind as you consider verse 1. Then when nothing else in those words prompts prayer, you continue by doing the same with the next line, “I shall not want.” Thus you would go through the chapter, line-by-line, until you ran out of time." - Don Whitney
Free APP: Five Psalms
Free APP: Five Psalms
There's even a free smartphone app called "Five Psalms" to do just this, and it’s available free for both iOS and Android platforms. There are no hidden costs, in-app purchases, subscription fees, etc.
Added Bonus: On the Settings page of the app you can even choose to have the app display the chapter of Proverbs for the day that corresponds with the day of the month (that is, there are 31 chapters in Proverbs, one for each day of the month).
Here’s How You’ll Benefit From Praying the Psalms
https://biblicalspirituality.org/why-you-should-be-praying-the-psalms/1. You’ll pray more Biblically-faithful prayers
The Bible will guide your prayers, helping you to speak to God with words that have come from the mind and heart of God. This also means you’ll be praying more in accordance with the will of God. Can you have any greater assurance that you are praying the will of God than when you are praying the Word of God?
2. You’ll be freed from the boredom of saying the same about the same old things in prayer
One way this will happen is that the Psalm will prompt you to pray about things you normally wouldn’t think to pray. You’ll find yourself praying about people and situations that you’d never think to put on a prayer list.
Another way is that even though you also continue to pray about the same things, (family, church, job, etc.), you’ll pray about them in new ways. Instead of saying, “Lord, please bless my family,” the text will guide you to pray things such as, “Lord, please be a shield around my family today” if you are praying through Psalm 3:3, for example.
3. You’ll pray more God-centered prayers
When you use a God-focused guide like the psalms to prompt your prayers, you’ll pray less-selfishly and with more attention to the ways, the will, and the attributes of God.
Prayer becomes less about what you want God to do for you (though that is always a part of biblical praying) and more about the concerns of God and His Kingdom.
4. You’ll enjoy more focus in prayer
When you say the same old things in prayer every day, it’s easy for your mind to wander. You find yourself praying auto-pilot prayer—repeating words without thinking about either them or the God to whom you offer them.
But when you pray the Bible your mind has a place to focus. And when your thoughts do wander, you have a place to return to—the next verse.
5. You’ll find that prayer becomes more like a real conversation with a real Person
Isn’t that what prayer should be? Prayer is talking with a Person, the Person of God himself. Prayer is not a monologue spoken in the direction of God. Yet somehow, many people assume that when they meet with the Lord he should remain silent and they should do all the talking. When we pray the psalms, though, our monologue to God becomes a conversation with God.
I’m not alluding to the perception of some spiritual impression or hearing an inner voice, imagining God saying things to us—away with that sort of mysticism. Instead, I’m referring to the Bible as the means by which God participates in the conversation, for the Bible is God speaking. God speaks in the Bible, and you respond to that in prayer. That’s why people who try this often report, “The pressure was off. I didn’t have to think about what to say next, and the whole experience just kind of flowed.”
Want to experience these benefits for yourself? How about right now? Pick a psalm, read what God says there, and talk with him about it.
6. You'll remember/retain the content of the Psalms much better when you pray through them (ADDED)
When you read a Psalm and allow that reading to inform the way you pray, you will, as a by-product, retain these ideas, phrases, etc. from that Psalm much more if you just read it. So this is another way practical way to put the Word of God into your mind and heart.
"I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." - Psalm 119:11 ESV
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