How Do I Pray the Psalms?

Praying the Psalms
Let's begin with the Psalms. These prayers have been at home on human lips for at least 3,000 years. Though there are varieties of psalms – lament, imprecatory, praise, wisdom, and so forth – they are all spoken or sung to God as prayer. Imagine that! We have 150 divinely inspired prayers that give us the words to speak to God when we are confused or scared, ashamed or guilty, at the top of our game or the bottom of the pit.

Why would we not pray them?
I am a strong advocate (and practitioner) of not only praying psalms but learning by heart as many as possible. To do so, my advice is to choose a translation and stick with it. I have been using the NASB for three decades, but perhaps you prefer KJV, ESV, CSB, or another version. Whatever translation you choose, do not change once you begin. Altering versions will make memorization difficult, if not impossible.

Next, pray two or three psalms every day. Better yet, use this chart to guide you through praying through the entire book of Psalms monthly. Pray each psalm word for word, as you would the Lord’s Prayer. Pray them aloud, not in a mindlessly rote fashion but meditatively. Savor the words.

These psalms are both God speaking to you and you speaking to God. What you will discover, over time, is that this rich feast of prayers in the Psalms will not only deeply nourish you, but make you question how you ever survived on the fast-food petitions common in pop spirituality.

Praying the Psalms Chart (click here) 

Read the full article: Praying the Bible by Chad Bird (click here)