The Psalms are the original pre-owned prayers. They are supplications and songs used by the people of God for generations. Learning to pray the Psalms may be the simplest yet most significant step you can take towards growth in your relationship with God.
The Psalms fall into three categories: Orientation, Disorientation and Reorientation.[i] In psalms of orientation God is viewed as trustworthy and reliable. Life is happy and the one praying is grateful for the stability and predictability of life. These psalms provide opportunities to pray about some of the most basic things of life which are responsible for the pleasantness of life. Examples include Ps. 19, 104, and 119.
Like psalms of orientation, psalms of reorientation are also prayers of praise and thanksgiving. But rather than focus on the stability and dependability of the life which God has created, reorientation prayers rejoice for a recent way in which God has delivered the author from despair or danger. They offer praise at its highest and loudest. Examples include Ps. 16, 23, 100, and 150.
Psalms of disorientation stand in stark contrast to the other two. These are prayers gasped and groaned when life is at its worst. In them, God seems neither dependable nor desirable. Those who are praying lament their situation in life and beg God for a change in their circumstances. These are the most disturbing prayers in the Old Testament. They include Ps. 13, 51, and 69.
I’ve found it helpful to reclassify these Old Testament prayers as prayers of the plain (orientation), prayers of the peak (reorientation), and prayers of the pit (disorientation).
- Prayers of the Plain are those psalms in which life is ordinary and routine and we thank God for the basic things of life that make life so good.
- Prayers of the Peak are those psalms in which life is unusually good and we thank God for a specific way in which he has been active in our lives.
- Prayers of the Pit are those psalms in which life is hard and horrible and we give voice to our harshest feelings. They are the prayers which are colored primarily by challenge and suffering in life.
Each kind of Psalm stretches us to go beyond what we normally experience in prayer. Prayers of the Plain stretch us to pray about issues we may generally overlook or take for granted, such as a beautiful and life-giving earth or the wise and insight-giving Scriptures. Prayers of the Pit stretch us to grieve to God with bold and unapologetic laments that we may have never used before in prayer. And Prayers from the Peak stretch us to praise in ways we may have never done before in prayer, using colorful and creative language.
Take Ten
One way to deepen your prayer-life is to pray one Psalm each day. You can do this in about ten minutes (you may need to divide up some of the longer Psalms). Some of the Psalms can be prayed nearly verbatim, just as they are written. In others, you will need to make some revisions, such as changing second-person or third-person language to first-person language. In some cases, you may wish to read the entire Psalm and then just paraphrase it to God in your own words.
There are two options for praying a Psalm daily: pray through the Psalter chronologically, or pray one type of Psalm each day (e.g., a Prayer from the Plain on day 1, a Prayer from the Pit on day 2, and a Prayer from the Peak on day 3). Below is a table that identifies each of the Psalms for you. Take ten right now and pray through one Psalm.
| Prayers of the Plain | Prayers of the Pit | Prayers of the Peak |
| 1 | 2 | 11 |
| 8 | 3 | 16 |
| 14 | 4 | 18 |
| 15 | 5 | 20 |
| 19 | 6 | 21 |
| 24 | 7 | 23 |
| 33 | 9 | 27 |
| 37 | 10 | 29 |
| 49 | 12 | 30 |
| 78 | 13 | 34 |
| 104 | 17 | 45 |
| 105 | 22 | 46 |
| 106 | 25 | 47 |
| 112 | 26 | 48 |
| 119:1-16 | 28 | 62 |
| 119:17-24 | 31 | 63 |
| 119:25-32 | 32 | 65 |
| 119:33-40 | 35 | 66 |
| 119:41-48 | 36 | 67 |
| 119:49-56 | 38 | 68 |
| 119:57-64 | 39 | 72 |
| 119:65-72 | 40 | 75 |
| 119:73-80 | 41 | 76 |
| 119:81-88 | 42 | 84 |
| 119:89-96 | 43 | 87 |
| 119:97-104 | 44 | 91 |
| 119:105-112 | 50 | 92 |
| 119:113-120 | 51 | 93 |
| 119:121-128 | 52 | 95 |
| 119:129-136 | 53 | 96 |
| 119:137-144 | 54 | 97 |
| 119:145-152 | 55 | 98 |
| 119:153-160 | 56 | 99 |
| 119:161-168 | 57 | 100 |
| 119:169-176 | 58 | 101 |
| 127 | 59 | 103 |
| 128 | 60 | 107 |
| 133 | 61 | 110 |
| 135 | 64 | 111 |
| 136 | 69 | 113 |
| 145 | 70 | 114 |
| 71 | 115 | |
| 73 | 116 | |
| 74 | 117 | |
| 77 | 118 | |
| 79 | 121 | |
| 80 | 122 | |
| 81 | 124 | |
| 82 | 125 | |
| 83 | 131 | |
| 85 | 132 | |
| 86 | 134 | |
| 88 | 138 | |
| 89 | 144 | |
| 90 | 146 | |
| 94 | 147 | |
| 102 | 148 | |
| 108 | 149 | |
| 109 | 150 | |
| 120 | ||
| 123 | ||
| 126 | ||
| 129 | ||
| 130 | ||
| 137 | ||
| 139 | ||
| 140 | ||
| 141 | ||
| 142 | ||
| 143 |
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[i] Walter Brueggemann The Message of the Psalms (Augsburg, 1984); Spirituality of the Psalms (Fortress, 2002).
