Moreover King Hezekiah and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to the LORDwith the words of David and Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped.

  - 2 Chronicles 29.30

Mael Dithruib asked Mael Ruain if it was enough to recite fifty psalms, if it happened that one gave instruction together with them. Mail Ruain said that, in his opinion, what was there in the whole Psalter was not beyond anyone’s ability. “For that is the additional task of all of us. We have now a man for the sickle, and for the flail, and for the measuring-rod, and for the ditch: the three fifties are the additional task of each of them...”

  - Stories of the Ceili De, Irish, 8th century

Let's face it, for most of us, our prayer life could use some, well, bolstering.

We are relieved when we read Paul saying we don’t know how to pray as we should (Rom. 8.26), but that must not be an excuse for slackness in prayer. Prayer is the most important spiritual discipline and the most characteristic discipline of the Christian life. We must not be complacent about the state of our prayers, but always strive to improve them.

Still, we don’t know how to pray as we should. We stutter, stumble, and stammer through well-worn lists familiar formulas, and trite phrases, and our prayers just don’t seem to get very far. If words fail us in prayer, then we need some help.

And God has already come to our aid.

Praying the psalms is the quickest and surest way to a better prayer life. And as Mael Ruain insisted, “the whole Psalter [is] not beyond anyone’s ability.” In the psalms God gives us the words and opens up the windows of prayer on just about anything you could imagine. All we need to do is take up these holy scripts and let them guide us before the throne of grace.

King Hezekiah understood the value of praying the psalms, especially when the people were in need of revival. The leaders of Ireland’s medieval monasteries understood the value of praying the psalms. They prayed the psalms, all 150 of them, and they taught the people in the communities surrounding their monasteries to pray them as well. Is it merely coincidental that these Celtic Christian communities fomented a revival that lasted for four centuries?

Is it possible that The Ailbe Community could do the same?

Open the Psalter to a favorite psalm. Read it through, slowly meditate down into it, then pray the psalm back to God, but in your own words, listening as the Spirit leads. God breathed those words out to you, and now you breathe those words back to Him. See how He comes to meet you in such prayers, and to carry you into His very presence with the assurance that, because these are His words, prepared for your use, your prayers have not fallen on deaf ears.

Get in the practice of learning to pray one or two new psalms every week, until you begin to feel comfortable in them all. Follow the daily schedule provided here and in Brother John Nunnikhoven’s Voices Together devotional.

Praying the psalms is not too much for you; indeed, doing so can provide a continual boost and bolster for your prayer life.

Learn to pray the psalms, and you’ll never want for words with which to praise, thank, or supplicate our heavenly Father.

Psalm 47.7-9 (Truro: “Shout, for the Blessed Jesus Reigns”)
God is the King of all the earth, sing praise to Him with glorious psalms!
He rules the nations by His worth, and on His throne receives their alms.

Princes of people gather all to Abraham and to our God.
Exalt the Lord, and on Him call – the earth is His, so praise our God!

Help me, Lord, to take up a better practice of prayer.

Psalms to pray for revival
Two of my favorite psalms to pray are Psalm 8 and Psalm 27. We have set these two psalms in a format suitable to use in praying for revival, and I’d be happy to send them to you. Just send me an email requesting the psalms, and I’ll get them to you right away. If you’d like more help in learning to pray the psalms, order a copy of the book, God’s Prayer Program, from our online store. Here you’ll find more of the why and how to make praying the psalms a more consistent part of your prayer program, too. While you’re at the bookstore, have a look at John Nunnikhoven’s two volumes, Voices Together. John offers solid guidance in how to pray each psalm.

Psalms to Pray for Today and Tuesday
Today
Morning: Psalm 119.33-40; Psalm 57
Evening: Psalm 133

Tuesday
Morning: Psalm 119.41-48; Psalm 58
Evening: Psalm 134

T. M. Moore, Principal
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All Psalms for singing from The Ailbe Psalter. Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.