Praying the Psalms Morning, Noon, and Night Every Two Months

Many people have said they’d like to pray the Psalms in the way that I have been doing. I pray through all 150 Psalms in the Psalter every two months in sequence, starting with odd number months (January, March, etc.). This way I pray each Psalm at least six times a year (sometimes in addition to the Psalms I’m scheduled to pray I use other Psalms that I or someone else needs). Praying the same Psalms over and over helps me to take Scripture deeper into my heart, praying it for myself and others. All the foundational types of prayer are in the Psalms. I summarize these in my article on Praying the Psalms.

Each day — morning, noon, and night — I let the Psalmist lead me in meditation, prayer, and journaling. As I do I pray the Psalms with Jesus Christ, the Messiah who fulfilled the Psalms’ prophecies, righteousness, and human experience. Then throughout the day I use little abiding prayers inspired by Psalms to help me practice God’s presence.

Wherever possible I’ve organized this schedule to fit my understanding of the ancient natural rhythms. Some Psalms refer to the morning, full light of day, or evening and I find it helpful to pray those Psalms at those times. I pray Psalms of submission or devotion in the morning and Psalms of reflection or confession in the evening. Psalms of thanksgiving and praise work well any time of day.

On average I pray two or three Psalms each day, but some days I only pray one because it is a special Psalm, is very long, or refers to more than one part of the day.

The Psalms schedule in the table below has three groupings of columns (including the day of the month, time of day, and Psalm to pray) to cover up to 62 days (some months have 31 days). “Day” refers to the date of the month. “Time” refers to morning, noon, or night. “Psalm” refers to the number of the Psalm to pray. If there are less than 30 days in the month then on the last day of the month you would need to pray extra Psalms to stay on track.

Everyday I carry with me My Psalms Prayer Book. This is my personal customization of the book of Psalms. I bought a Psalms Bible off of the New International Version website, took off the binding, three-hole punched each page, and used three rings to hold the pages together. Over the years I have added many pages with my prayer poems and journal entries inspired by the Psalms. Also I have added many pictures (from the Internet or ones that I draw) and abiding prayers inspired by the Psalms. (See “Psalms Prayers” on Soul Shepherding.org for some of my meditations and abiding prayers that are in My Psalms Prayer Book that I carry with me.)

May it be true of you and I that like the Psalmist we can say before the Lord with humble confidence: “I am a person of prayer… I am devoted to the Lord… I live uprightly.”