Why We Need to Pray the Psalms

Christopher Ash writes about 7 reasons we should pray the Psalms in an excellent article at The Gospel Coalition website. See the whole article here.

It’s a quick read, but if you don’t have the time, here are his main points:

1. Praying the Psalms teaches us to pray.

2. Praying the Psalms trains us to respond to the riches of Bible truth.

3. Praying the Psalms shapes well-rounded people to pray in all of human life.

4. Praying the Psalms reorients disordered affections into God’s good order.

5. Praying the Psalms can sweeten sour emotions.

6. Praying the Psalms guards us against dangerously individualistic piety.

7. Praying the Psalms arouses us to warmth in our relationship with God.

He includes with this helpful piece of advice that I’ve learned to be true for my own life: “It takes a while to learn from the Psalms how to respond to the whole of the Bible’s teaching. But it’s worth the effort. If we learn to pray the Psalms, we will have learned to respond in prayer to every facet of biblical truth.”