Psalms

Journey Through the Psalms

Psalms: Searching for the Words

What do you say when the problem is more than you can solve? What do you say when the hurt is more than you can take? What do you say when the anger is more than you can contain? What do you say when the gift is more than you can accept? These are some of the moments in life that often leave us speechless.

What words do you use when it seems there are no words??

Believe it or not, there’s a book for that…a place to turn when you don’t even know where to start. Take heart , you are not the first to find yourself wondering what to say.

Men and women, great and small, generation after generation have turned to the Psalms…searching for the words when words are not enough.

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Reading Plan

printable reading plan (pdf)

Reading Insights for Psalms

Suggestions While Reading Psalms

· Make the psalm’s words your words. Augustine of Hippo said, “If the psalm prays, you pray. If the psalm laments, you lament. If the psalm exalts, you rejoice. If it hopes, you hope. If it fears, you fear. Everything written here is a mirror for us.” As you pray the Psalms, you will learn how to pray in every season, whether rejoicing with those who rejoice or mourning with those who mourn.

· Meditate on the Psalms. By meditating before we pray, we are following in the way of the psalmists themselves (Ps. 1, 19:14, 63:6, 77:12, 119, 143:5 145:5). If anything in the psalm sticks out to you: pause, ask the Spirit to shine His light on it, then mull it over in your mind until it begins to ignite your heart. Without a doubt, the warmth of the Psalms is due to the kindling of meditation.

· Memorize the Psalms. Nothing has been more fruitful in my prayer life than memorizing the Psalms. I always have words to give voice to my soul even when I’m speechless. Jesus modeled this by praying the Psalms from the cross (Matthew 27:46).

· Pray the psalm through Jesus & with Jesus. Jesus is both the one through whom we pray to the Father and the one who prays these psalms to the Father (Hebrews 2:12). As you’re praying the psalm, imagine what the words would mean coming out of Jesus’ lips as both a human and God, in His suffering and in His glory. He said that all the Psalms are about Him (Luke 24:44).

Benjamin Kandt – editor for praypsalms.org

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