Praying Through God's Word: Psalms

Psalm 1:1-6
Lord, we thank You that Your way is the best way. It’s ‘make up your mind’ time. Every day, we must make up our mind – Will it be the way of the world? Will it be the way of the Word? It cannot be both. It must be one or the other.
Lord, help us to choose Your way. Help us to keep on choosing Your way. May we always know, in our hearts, that Your way is the best way.
Psalm 2:1-12
We thank You, Lord, for Jesus Christ - Your Son, our Saviour. What a great Saviour He is! When we think of Jesus, may our hearts be filled with true and lasting joy. We search for happiness - but we don't find it. Why? - Because we look in the wrong place. We look within ourselves. What do we find? - An emptiness which keeps on gnawing away at us, 'There must be more than this.' There is. There's Jesus. He changes our focus. We start looking less at ourselves and more at Him. We see that real happiness - true and lasting joy - doesn't come from within ourselves. It comes from Jesus - "Hallelujah! I have found Him ... Through His blood I now am saved."

Psalm 3:1-6
Lord, we are surrounded by so many enemies. They are Your enemies, enemies of Your Gospel, enemies of Your truth, What are we to do? What can we do? Left to ourselves, we are helpless. Our situation is hopeless - until You come to us with Your love and Your power. You assure us that You love us. You are with us and You lead us in the pathway of holiness and victory. You lead us on the pathway that brings glory to You.

Psalm 4:1-8
Lord, we thank You that You answer the sinner's prayer. Jesus is Your Answer. He is our Saviour. He is the Gospel Answer. He is the Good News that we need to hear. He is the Good News of Your amazing love. He is the Good News of Your saving power. Lord, we thank You for Jesus - our wonderful Saviour.

Psalm 5:1-12
Lord, without Your help, we are nothing and we can do nothing. We need You, Lord. We can never be what You call us to be if we don't come to You and receive strength from You. We come to You in our weakness. It is the weakness of our sin. We come to receive Your strength. It is the strength of Your salvation.

Psalm 6:1-10
Lord, help us not to get bogged down in what's happening to us right now. Help us to lift up our eyes and see Jesus. Help us not only to see Him as a figure from the past - a man who lived a long time ago. Help us to see Him as the Lord who is coming to us from the future, coming to us from the glory coming to us from from heaven. coming with His salvation, coming to establish Your eternal Kingdom.


Psalm 7:1-7
Sometimes, Lord, we feel like we're in a deep, dark hole. We don't want to be in this place - but we are! Help us to know that You're there with us. You're not there to blame us for getting into this mess. You're there to assure us that there is hope.

Psalm 8:1-9
Lord, we thank You that You don't keep Your distance from us. You come near to us. You show us Your love. You give us Your peace. You fill our hearts with Your joy. You lead us forward with hope. Thank You, Lord.

Psalm 9:1-20
“I will give thanks to You, Lord, with all my heart …My enemies turn back; they stumble and perish before you .… The Lord reigns forever … The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble” (Psalm 9:1,3,7,9).
We give thanks to You, Lord. Where does our thanksgiving begin? It begins with thinking. We think - and we thank. We think about what You have done for us. We thank You for what You have done for us.

We thank You, Lord, that we have the victory in Christ. When Satan attacks us, help us to remind him that Jesus is Lord. Help us to tell him, “Jesus is my Saviour – and He’s a lot stronger than you are!” We thank You, Lord, that Satan – our determined enemy – is also our defeated enemy. He’s been defeated by Jesus – and Jesus gives His victory to us! When Satan to us, “I’m stronger than you are”, help us to answer him with Your Word: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).
Psalm 10:1-18
Lord, when it feels like You've forgotten us, help us to see the truth as it really is. We have forgotten You. We've taken our eyes off You - and now everything's out of focus. There's a blurring of our vision. Lord, take us to the Cross of Jesus. Show us that we're not forgotten. We're remembered.

Psalms 11:1-13:6
We thank You, Lord, that You have opened up for us a great future. What glory awaits us in Your eternal Kingdom. What encouragement this gives to us when we're going through a hard time! Help us, Lord, to lift up our eyes, to catch a glimpse of Your glory, to be changed by Your glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). Help us to "turn our eyes upon Jesus", to "look full in His wonderful face." As we look upon Jesus, may "the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."

Psalms 14:1-15:5
When our faith is being sorely tested, help us, Lord, to turn to You. Help us to know that, through it all, You are there with us - suffering with us, leading us into Your joy. Teach us, in our suffering, to wait for the day when You will "restore our fortunes", when You will answer our prayer: "O that salvation ... would come", when we will, again, "rejoice" and be "glad" in You (Psalm 14:7).

Psalm 16:1-11
True and lasting joy comes from You, Lord. This joy doesn't depend on good things happening to us. Even when bad things are happening to us, this joy, Your joy, is still there - because You are still there. You're with us - and You're for us. The world cannot give this joy to us. Joy is Your gift. The world cannot take this joy away from us. Whatever happens to us, there's one thing that never changes - You are our God. This is where our joy comes from. It comes from Your faithfulness. Help us to remember this - especially when everything seems to be pulling us away from You.

Psalm 17:1-15
Lord, we long for a closer walk with You. Sometimes, Lord, we take our eyes off Jesus, our Saviour - and we wander far away from You. Always, You are calling us back to Yourself. In love, You wait for us to return to You. You call us to make a new beginning with You.

Psalm 18:1-24
Lord, You are "our strength, our rock, our fortress, our deliverer, our shield and the horn of our salvation, our stronghold" (Psalm 18:1-2). What more can we ask for? You are all that we need - and more! Help us, Lord, not to stagger along in our own strength when You're calling us to stand in Your strength and march on with You to victory (Ephesians 6:13). Our own strength isn't strength. It's weakness. Your strength is the only true strength. We are strong when we stand upon Your gracious promise - "My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is mad e perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Psalm 18:25-50
We thank You, Lord, for Your salvation and Your victory. Help us to walk with You in salvation and victory, obeying Your command - "Clothe yourselves in humility", heeding Your warning - "God opposes the proud", and trusting Your promise - He "gives grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5).

Psalm 19:1-14
Lord, You're always speaking to us. Every day and every night,You speak to us through Your created world. You prepare us for hearing the voice of Jesus, Your living Word. He speaks to us through the Scriptures, Your written Word. Help us, Lord, to become aware of Your presence, to listen to the voice of Jesus - calling us to come to You, and to receive new life, as we put our trust in Jesus, our Saviour.

Psalms 20:1-21:13
“We trust in the Name of the Lord our God...Through the unfailing love of the Most High’ we ‘shall not be moved” (Psalms 20:7; 21:7). Lord, we thank You that You are a solid rock for our faith. You are the only solid rock for our faith. Without You, Lord, the foundations are shaking. We're about to collapse. You pick us up. We're broken in pieces. You put us together again. Our life is going nowhere. You give us a new sense of direction. Without this input from You, our lives are empty. Everything we do is futile. When You are there with us, everything changes. It's Your love that makes the difference. It's Your love that changes us. Thank You, Lord, for Your love.
When our future seems so uncertain, help us, Lord, to put our trust in You. Help us to remember Your Son, Jesus. Help us to remember that He is our Saviour. When we fear the worst, may we always remember that our Saviour is absolutely trustworthy and completely dependable. When our love for Him seems so weak, may we remember that His love is never weak. It’s always strong. When we fail Him, may we remember that He will never fail us. His love is an unfailing love. When we’re feeling down, may the love of Jesus lift us up. When we don’t feel like singing, may we look to You to fill our hearts with praise to You.

Psalm 22:1-18
"My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1). This was the Psalmist's prayer. Often, it's our prayer - it's the way we feel, even if we don't actually speak the words! More than that, it was our Saviour's prayer (Matthew 27:46|). On the Cross, "our sin was laid on Him" (Isaiah 53:6). When we're suffering, help us to see Jesus - suffering for us. Help us to see Him - risen, exalted and returning for us. Help us to say, "Thank You, Lord. I am not forsaken. I am forgiven."

Psalms 22:19-23:4
We thank You, Lord, for Jesus Christ, our great Saviour. He died for us. He was raised from the dead for us. He is coming again for us. We think of all that He has done for us, and we say, "Hallelujah! What a Saviour!"

Psalm 23:1-6

Sometimes, we nibble at our food. We don’t feel like eating. We’re off-colour. Often, Lord, we’re like that with Your Word. We could be enjoying a feast – but we’re not! We’re too easily satisfied. There’s no real hungering and thirsting for Your life-giving Word. Lord, give us more hunger for You. Fill us with a deeper desire for Your presence and Your blessing. Help us to feast on Your Word – the Word of life, the Word which we need so much, the Word which leads us into all the blessing that You want so much to give to us.

Psalms 23:5-24:10
Lord, we thank You that You are preparing a wonderful future for us. It's glory with You. It's eternal life: "I shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever" (Psalm 23:6). Fill our hearts, O Lord, with resurrection hope - the true and living hope, the sure and steadfast hope that comes from knowing You, the God who has raised Your Son, the God who raises us up, with Jesus, to everlasting life.