How To Pray A Psalm

The Book of Psalms is composed of many different prayers. While King David wrote a variety of Psalms during different points of his life, several other authors contributed, as well. You will find that the Book of Psalms is pretty emotional. This is a given since the Psalms cover various emotions, like anger, worry, anxiety, fear, despair, hopelessness, joy, love, zeal, and many more. The emotions that the psalmist pours out to God are illustrated well through the poetic nature of the Psalms. Ultimately, the Books of Psalms contains songs of praise towards God from David and the other authors. For example, Psalm 23 is David’s song to God, whom he knew was the One taking good care of him as His sheep, just as he took care of his own sheep when he was still a shepherd boy. Psalm 51 is David’s cry of repentance and brokenness towards God when the prophet Nathan rebuked him and confronted him about his sin. Psalm 119 is written by several authors who sang to God about how essential and central His Word, statutes, and laws are. With that, meditating on the Book of Psalms will teach us truths about God and how to pray and pour our hearts into Him as the psalmists did.

Father in heaven, as I get into the Book of Psalms, open my eyes to the wonders of Your Word that I may understand the heart of the psalmists and know more about who You are and Your glory just as they have magnified You in the Psalms that they have written. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Why Pray the Psalms?

One of the reasons why it is good to pray the Psalms is that they are songs of praise. While that may be hard to grasp given that there are Psalms like Psalm 22, where David begins by asking God why He has forsaken him, Psalms are known to be praised by Hebrews ever since. Now, given that Psalms are known as praises, even when the psalmist is lamenting towards God, we still get a unique insight when it comes to praising God.

The Psalms are expressions of worship towards God through songs of praise. Those songs were taught and passed on to the next generation so that God’s people could always worship Him and remember who He is and what He has done (Ephesians 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.). In the past, Psalms were passed on through oral tradition. Unsurprisingly, they were made into songs since they were easier to remember that way.

Why does that matter? Well, the Psalms are worshipful songs of praise to God. Through them, His faithfulness was remembered, no matter what the scenario or moment was. If you read the Book of Psalms, you will find Psalms arising from different contexts or occasions. Whether those are moments of intimacy with God (Psalm 139), difficult moments of being surrounded by enemies (Psalm 4), moments of gratitude towards God for His steadfast love (Psalm 136), or any other moment in history, the psalmist always remembers to praise, worship, adore, and remember who God is and ascribe to Him His glory.

Hence, we pray the Psalm that corresponds or resonates with our present circumstance because we want to praise, worship, and thank God whatever our moment may be. It is also important to note that this includes moments of hardships, pain, distress, worry, fear, and other suffering. It may be ironic that such lamentations are considered praise. However, they still are songs of praise because when we come to God in all honesty, lament, and pour our hearts out to Him with whatever it is we are experiencing, whether we are in misery because of our sin (Psalm 130; Psalm 51), feel harassed or persecuted (Psalm 6), suffer from emotional wounds (Psalm 38), feel our souls being downcast (Psalm 42), or experience any other range of different emotional turmoil and suffering, it all still ends with trusting God and magnifying who He is. Whether the Psalm is a song of rejoicing or lamenting, we can make good use of what the Hebrew author left for us, knowing that we might be going through something similar to what they experienced.

How Do I Pray a Psalm?

First, look for a Psalm that applies to your current circumstance. To know if a particular Psalm applies to your circumstance, it is imperative that you carefully study its context so that you can remain faithful to the way we apply and use the Scriptures and not take them out of context just to fit what you want. When you find a Psalm from a psalmist whose experience resonates or is similar to yours, you can observe the heart behind the song and use that in prayer. For example, if you fell into sin and are coming to God in repentance, Psalm 51 is applicable to you given its background where David was sorry and had a broken and humble heart before God. Reading Psalm 51, you can capture the essence of it—David was humble before God, acknowledged his sin, and remembered that only God makes him whiter than snow. Of course, as Christians, we look at the scriptures and pray with the Gospel lens in our eyes. Below is an example of a prayer:

Heavenly Father, I am sorry, for I have sinned. I shouldn’t have lost my temper and mistreated my wife. It wasn’t just a sin against her but also You; she is Your daughter. In the end, I can lean on only Your grace and mercy and Your Holy Spirit, which is continually at work in my heart. Thank You because my righteousness is in Christ, who made me whiter than snow. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

You can also do this if the verses can be applied to your prayer word for word. For example, let’s say you are concerned about your life’s journey. Maybe you are not sure where you will end up, or you are worried about the journey ahead. You can pray Psalm 121 as a whole. The point and context of the Psalm is God’s care towards His people as they journey or pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On their journey, they see hills. They look up to those hills and trust and depend on God, knowing that their help comes from Him, and He watches over them on their journey.

[Psalm 121]

Especially if you are in a situation where you do not know what to pray for in your current moment, reading and saying a Psalm will be of help to you. Not only does it guide you and teach you how to pray in that particular moment, but it also teaches you how to respond in worship towards God, whether you are having a moment of rejoicing or difficulty.