How to Pray the Psalms

Someone told you to pray the Psalms. So you opened to one, read it carefully, and closed the book. It felt like reading. Praying, you assumed, was supposed to be something else.

It is closer than you think. A psalm is already spoken to God, not about Him. Below: one method for tomorrow morning, Psalm 13 worked line by line, and four ways Christians have prayed all 150.

What praying a psalm means, in one paragraph

Praying a psalm means saying it to God as your own prayer. Not studying it, not hunting for the main idea first. Enter the Bible, from Luther Seminary, describes the book as “the hymnbook or prayer book of the Bible, containing 150 poems, addressed to God,” and says the psalms have served believers in every generation “as models for their own response to God.” That detail is the whole method. Read one aloud and you are already facing the right way. You only have to mean it.

John Calvin, in the preface to his Commentary on the Psalms, called the book “An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul,” because “there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror.” The Orthodox Church in America says “virtually all states of man’s soul before God are found expressed in the psalms,” down to “questioning and even complaining.” Whatever you bring, a psalm is already saying it. (For the shape of the book itself, see how to read the Psalms.)

One psalm, five steps: a method for tomorrow morning

This is our method, not an ancient rule. Psalm 5:3 names the hour many people choose: “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly” (NIV). Before the phone is a good place for it.

1. Pick one psalm. A short one for the first week. Psalm 13 is six verses, and we walk through it below. Or start at Psalm 1 and go in order.
2. Read it once, silently. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer notes that Hebrew verse is “not based on meter or rhyme, but on parallelism of clauses.” Expect the second half of a line to say the first half again.
3. Say it out loud, to God. Slowly. The Prayer Book asks that “a distinct pause should be made at the asterisk” it prints mid-verse. Pause at the middle of each line.
4. Add your own sentence where a line lands. If “How long, Lord?” is true today, tell Him how long. Then keep going.
5. End on the line you can honestly mean. If you are not at the praise yet, stop at the last line you can mean. Psalm 62:8 gives the permission: “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge” (NIV).

If one verse stops you, the steps for meditating on Scripture work well on a single line.

A worked example: Psalm 13, line by line

Psalm 13 is a good first psalm to pray because it is short and it does not pretend. Rolf Jacobson, writing in a Working Preacher series on the Psalms, calls it “a prayer for help — which is the most common type of psalm,” and estimates that “roughly 1/3 of the psalms are prayers for help.” The heart of that kind of psalm, he writes, is “the ask”: here, “answer me” and “give light to my eyes” in verse 3.

Nancy deClaissé-Walford, in a Working Preacher commentary on Psalm 22, says laments “typically consist of five major elements”: the invocation, where the psalmist cries out to God to hear; the complaint, where “the psalmist tells God what is wrong”; the petition, “what the psalmist wants God to do”; the expression of trust; and the expression of praise. She shows them in Psalm 22. The table below is our own reading of Psalm 13 against her five, with an example of the kind of sentence you might add at each one.

The psalm does not open with praise. It asks “How long?” four times before verse 3. In deClaissé-Walford’s words, “The lament psalms depict not a moment in time, but a process in time.” You do not have to reach verse 6 on the morning you start verse 1. Jacobson adds that these psalms tell us “God is big enough for everything we’ve got — our pain, our anger, our questions, our doubts.”

Her word was “typically.” Not every lament reaches praise; some stop in the dark, and those are in the Bible too. If that is where you are, see praying when you don’t feel it.

When the psalm does not match your day

The psalm is full of joy and you are not. Or it is full of enemies and you have none, only an inbox. Three honest ways through:

• Pray the lines you can mean. Say the rest slowly, as words you are learning. Enter the Bible calls the psalms “models” for a response to God, not a test of how you feel.
• Say so. “I can’t say this line yet” is a prayer, with the same honesty as Psalm 13’s first verse.
• Let it wait. If Calvin is right that every emotion is in here, not every line will be yours on the same morning.

The psalms that ask God to act against enemies are the hardest. They are prayed to God, not acted out: the psalmist hands the anger over instead of carrying it. Traditions read them differently. The Orthodox Church in America reads the psalms “calling for victory over the enemies in battle” as referring “to the only real Enemy, the devil, and all of his wicked works which Christ has come to destroy.” That is one tradition’s answer; how your own church prays them is a question for your pastor or priest.

If the trouble is no words at all, what to pray about when you don’t know what to say starts there.

How the church has prayed all 150: four patterns side by side

Once one psalm feels natural, the next question is pace. Each answer below was written for a particular kind of life. Four, from their own texts, not ranked.

Benedict. Chapter 18 of the Rule allows a different order, so long as “the whole Psalter of one hundred and fifty psalms be said every week, and that it always start again from the beginning at Matins on Sunday.” Its numbers follow the older Greek and Latin count, so its nightly Compline psalms, “the 4th, the 90th, and the 133d,” are Psalms 4, 91 and 134 in most English Bibles.

The kathismas. The OCA says the psalter “is chanted each week in those monasteries and churches which perform the entire liturgical office”, a description of the full services, not a rule for every home. Orthodox service books follow the Septuagint, so their psalm numbers can differ.

The Prayer Book. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer prints its Psalter under headings from “First Day: Morning Prayer” to “Thirtieth Day: Evening Prayer.”

Which pace fits is a question for your own church as much as your calendar. The smallest honest start is one psalm, out loud, before the phone.

Praying a psalm with someone else

“The Psalter is a body of liturgical poetry,” the Prayer Book’s note on the Psalter says. “It is designed for vocal, congregational use, whether by singing or reading.” It names four traditional ways of reciting a psalm, and every one of them works at a kitchen table:

• Direct. Everyone reads the whole psalm together, in unison.
• Antiphonal. Two groups alternate, verse by verse. At home, two people take turns.
• Responsorial. One voice reads the verses; everyone answers with a refrain, such as “But I trust in your unfailing love.”
• Responsive. A leader alternates with everyone else, verse by verse.

Parallelism makes the alternating forms natural: one person says the line, the other says it again in different words. Then add your own sentences between the verses.

If your church prays the Psalms together, learn its way there. Looking for one? Our church finder can help. And for making this a daily rhythm, see how to pray consistently.

Frequently asked questions

What does it mean to pray the Psalms?

Saying a psalm to God as your own prayer instead of only studying it. The Psalms are already addressed to God, so reading one aloud and meaning it is the prayer, with your own sentences added where a line fits your day.

Which psalm should I pray first?

A short one. Psalm 13 is a good first choice: six verses that move from “How long, Lord?” to trust and praise. If you would rather not choose, start at Psalm 1 and pray one a day in order.

How do I pray a psalm that does not fit how I feel?

Say the lines you can mean and be honest about the rest. “I can’t say this line yet” is a prayer too. Calvin called the Psalms a mirror of every emotion, so not every line will be yours on the same morning.

How many psalms should I pray a day?

One is enough to start. Patterns range from one a day (150 days) to about five a day in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer’s thirty-day Psalter and about twenty-one a day in Benedict’s weekly cycle, written for monks. The right pace is one you can keep; ask your own church too.

Can I pray the psalms that ask God to punish enemies?

Yes, as prayers handed to God rather than plans to act on: the psalmist gives the anger to God instead of carrying it out. Traditions read them differently; the Orthodox Church in America reads the enemy as the devil and his works. Ask your pastor or priest how your tradition prays them.