How to read the Psalms when you can't find the words to pray

There are days when you want to pray and nothing comes. You sit down, you open your mouth, and the words you reach for feel too small or too tidy for what is going on inside you. The book of Psalms was made for exactly those days.

A prayer book written by people in every mood

The Psalms are 150 songs and prayers, traditionally grouped into five books. They were written over many centuries, and they cover nearly everything a person can feel: joy, thanks, fear, anger, shame, loneliness, doubt and hope. A large share of them are laments, which means they begin with a complaint. They do not clean up the complaint first.

Here is how Psalm 13 opens:

“How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?” (Psalm 13:1, KJV)

Nobody tidied that up. The writer says out loud that God feels absent and asks how long it will last. The same psalm ends somewhere very different:

“But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.” (Psalm 13:5-6, KJV)

The psalm does not explain how the writer got from the first verses to the last. It simply shows that both can be said to God in the same prayer, and that honest speech is where the movement begins.

A simple way to borrow a psalm

You do not need a method, but a rhythm helps if you have never done this before.

1. Pick one psalm and read it slowly, out loud. Hearing the words in your own voice makes them feel less like someone else’s.
2. Stop at the line that sounds most like you. It might be a complaint, a question or a request. Say that line again, slowly.
3. Change one phrase into your own words. If the psalm says “my soul is cast down,” say what is cast down in you today. Name the actual thing.
4. Keep reading to the end, even if you do not feel it. Many psalms turn toward trust in the last verses. You can read those as a direction to walk in, not as proof that you are already there.
5. Close with one sentence of your own. It can be as short as “Lord, I do not know what to say, but I am here.”

Psalms to try, depending on the day

• When you are discouraged: Psalm 42. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God” (Psalm 42:5, KJV).
• When you feel abandoned: Psalm 13, above, or Psalm 22.
• When you are afraid: Psalm 27 or Psalm 46.
• When you are grateful: Psalm 103 or Psalm 136.
• When you cannot see any light at all: Psalm 88. It is the one psalm that ends without a turn toward hope, and its last line is about darkness. Some readers find comfort simply in knowing that a prayer like that belongs in the Bible.

What this will not do

Reading a psalm will not make a hard season disappear, and it is not a substitute for talking to a friend, a pastor or a counselor when you need one. What it does is give you a way to stay in conversation with God when your own words are not enough, using words that thousands of people have prayed before you.

If you want a place to start tonight, open the Bible reader, choose Psalms from the bookshelf and read one psalm out loud. If you want a verse and a short prayer to carry through the day, try the Verse of the Day.