How to Pray the Psalms

The Psalms are the only book of the Bible written to be prayed rather than read. They have been the Church's prayer book continuously since before there was a Church — Jesus prayed them, quoted them from the cross, and died with one on his lips.

What makes them peculiar and valuable is that they are not a collection of exemplary prayers. They are a complete inventory of what a human being says to God, including the parts we would leave out: rage, despair, false confidence, the demand for revenge, the flat accusation that God is asleep.

Four ways to pray them

Pray one slowly

One psalm, read aloud, slowly, as your own prayer. Stop where something catches and stay there. This is Lectio Divina applied to the psalter and is the simplest entry.

Aloud matters. These are songs, and they were meant for the voice.

Pray them in sequence

Work through the psalter in order, one or two a day. About three months for the whole 150.

The discipline of sequence is that it hands you psalms you would not have chosen. You will pray a lament on a good day and a psalm of triumph on a terrible one, and the mismatch is not a problem to be solved — it is the practice widening you beyond your own week. The monastic tradition has always insisted on this.

Follow a cycle

The historic offices assign psalms to days. Cranmer's 1662 Book of Common Prayer runs the entire psalter every thirty days, morning and evening — the Daily Office keeps this cycle, and today's appointed psalms are on the page. Benedict's Rule got through all 150 every week. The Roman Liturgy of the Hours now uses a four-week cycle.

Following a cycle is the most formative and the most demanding option, and it is what the Church has actually done for most of its history.

Pray them for other people

Take a psalm and pray it on behalf of someone who cannot. Psalm 88 for a friend in a depression. Psalm 121 for someone travelling. Psalm 51 for someone who has done something they cannot yet face.

This is an ancient use and it solves a real problem: the psalms of extremity are hard to pray honestly from a comfortable life, and praying them for someone in extremity is both truer and more useful.

The hard ones

About a third of the psalter is complaint, and a smaller portion asks God to do violent things to enemies. Psalm 137 ends by blessing whoever dashes Babylonian infants against the rocks. These are in the book, they were not removed, and the Church has prayed them for three thousand years.

Several approaches, none of which is universally agreed:

Pray them as they stand, on behalf of those who mean them. People who have had children killed do pray like Psalm 137. The psalm exists so that such people are not shut out of the Church's prayer, and praying it on their behalf is a recognised use.

Read the enemies as what is destroying you — not a person. This is the oldest Christian reading, going back to Augustine and Cassian.

Let them stand as testimony rather than instruction. The psalm records what someone said to God in a particular horror. That it was kept tells you something about what may be said.

Notice the alternative. The rage is brought to God rather than acted on. That is the essential thing the imprecatory psalms model: the violence is handed over, not carried out.

What is not a good approach is skipping them. A psalter with the difficult third removed teaches, silently, that only the acceptable feelings may be prayed — which is the opposite of what the book is for, and it will fail you precisely when you need it.

Where to start

If the whole psalter is daunting, these ten cover most of the territory:

• Psalm 1 — the two ways. The doorway to the whole book.
• Psalm 8 — what is man, that thou art mindful of him.
• Psalm 23 — the one everyone knows, which is the reason to read it slowly.
• Psalm 42 — thirst, and the question "why art thou cast down".
• Psalm 51 — the great confession.
• Psalm 88 — unrelieved darkness, and no resolution at the end.
• Psalm 103 — mercy, and dust.
• Psalm 121 — the hills, and the keeper who does not sleep.
• Psalm 130 — out of the depths.
• Psalm 139 — being entirely known.

Common questions

How do I pray the Psalms?

Read one aloud, slowly, as your own words. Stop where something catches and stay with it. That is the whole of the simplest method. Beyond it, you can work through the psalter in sequence, follow one of the historic cycles that assigns psalms to days, or pray a particular psalm on behalf of someone who cannot pray it themselves.

How long does it take to pray through all 150 Psalms?

At one or two a day, about three months. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer covers the whole psalter in thirty days by appointing psalms at both morning and evening prayer. Benedict's Rule managed all 150 in a week, which gives a sense of how much of monastic life was spent in this book.

What do I do with the psalms that curse enemies?

Do not skip them. The common approaches are to read the enemies as whatever is destroying you rather than as people — the oldest Christian reading, from Augustine onwards — or to pray them on behalf of those who genuinely mean them, such as people who have suffered atrocity. Either way, notice what the psalm actually does: it brings rage to God rather than acting on it.

Which psalms should I pray when I am struggling?

Psalm 88 if you need a psalm that does not resolve, Psalm 42 for dryness, Psalm 130 out of the depths, Psalm 13 for "how long". The complaint psalms are there precisely for this, and praying one that matches where you are is often more relief than a psalm of praise you cannot mean.

Should I pray the Psalms out loud?

Where you can. They are songs, written for the voice and for a congregation, and the rhythm carries the sense in a way silent reading flattens. Praying them aloud also slows you to the pace of the words, which is most of what the practice needs.