Life is complicated. The world seems to have gone crazy. The Church is in disarray amid debates, division, and destruction.
In times like this, we need something rock solid, something bigger than ourselves, something that lifts our eyes above the suffering and sorrow of this moment and joins our hearts to millions of believers across space and time.
We need the psalms.
For generations, Christians have prayed and sung the psalms. It was the prayer book of Jesus. It is the Old Testament book most often quoted in the New. Through thousands of years of memorization, recitation, and singing, the people of God have found in this book a God-centered view of reality—words that put into perspective all our emotions, conflicting desires, times of suffering, and experiences of faith and doubt.
Invitation to a Prayer Journey
Today, I invite you to join me on a prayer journey through all the psalms in 30 days.
To make this simple, I’ve adapted a centuries-old approach to reading the psalms, by extending a Morning and Evening reading of psalms into a Morning, Midday, and Evening pattern. This is a book with all the psalms, as translated in the Christian Standard Bible, arranged in three daily readings for 30 days.
A Pattern for Daily Prayer
Before and after the psalms each day, you will find Scriptures and prayers that follow the specific themes found in the calendar of the Christian year. Every week is a mini-journey through the story of the gospel:
- Day 1: Anticipation for Christ’s coming
- Day 2: The incarnation of Christ
- Day 3: The manifestation of Christ’s glory in the world
- Day 4: Repentance and the cross of Christ
- Day 5: The resurrection power of Christ
- Day 6: The power and presence of the Holy Spirit
- Day 7: The glory of the Triune God
Every time of prayer includes the Gloria, the Lord’s Prayer, and a biblical blessing.
The morning prayer guide includes a confession of faith taken from Scripture, or ancient creeds and confessions. The evening prayer guide includes a confession of sin and a biblical promise of absolution to all who repent.
The morning and evening prayers also include songs from Scripture, as well as written prayers from Christians through the ages, and a time set aside for you to intercede on behalf of others and bring your personal requests to the Lord.
The midday prayer guide is abbreviated, usually with a shorter selection from the psalms, since this is when it may be more challenging to carve out 10 or 15 minutes for prayer.
Tips for Preparing
- Praying the psalms in 30 days is a spiritual workout, much like doing daily exercises. Don’t feel pressure to make it through all the psalms your first time through. If you miss a reading, you can catch up later, or you can skip it and come back to it the next month. If you lag behind a day or two, you can pick up at the day of the month, or you can proceed in order, even if it takes you more than 30 days to complete the readings.
- Set the book on a desk, nightstand, or table close to your bed, where you will see it. Let it be a visual reminder whenever you enter the room that nudges you to spend time with the Lord.
- Pray the morning selection as soon as you wake up and the evening selection just before going to bed.
- The abbreviated midday routine is ideal for a brief pause during work, but if you miss a midday prayer time, simply add that psalm selection to the evening prayer guide in order to catch up.
Please Join Me!
My prayer is that this guide will help you make praying through the psalms a regular spiritual discipline that strengthens your love for God and neighbor. Please get your Psalms in 30 Days prayer book wherever books are sold—available now at Lifeway, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Christian Book, and Books a Million.
If you embark on the prayer journey in the days ahead, let me know on social media or via email. There’s something special about praying these psalms each day knowing that believers all across the country are on the same journey.
Also, please share these videos, which introduce the prayer book and feature comments from Andrew Peterson and Jackie Hill Perry.
May the faithful love of the Lord rest on you, as you place your hope in him (Psalm 33:22)!
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