Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends

Resources for Application

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of life. The table below is not an exhaustive catalog of the Psalms’ riches, but it does provide a starting place for recognizing different kinds of soul medicine. The Psalms can be used in multiple ways, so there is some overlap in the samples below.

Type of Prayer

Example Psalms

Notes on How to Pray

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is found in seeking the Lord in his Word ( torah ). Praying wisdom psalms teaches us how to approach the Lord in his Word and how to live a wise life that brings him glory. Jesus wept, and we who follow Jesus often find ourselves in seasons of suffering. Lament psalms are one of the most common kinds of prayer in Psalms. They contain both personal and corporate examples of how to pray when we are suffering and experiencing pain. The first passages of Scripture that Martin Luther (d. 1546) translated into German were the seven “confession” or “penitential psalms.”These seven psalms have been especially important across the history of God’s people in teaching us how to regularly confess our sin and truly repent.

Wisdom Prayers

1, 19, 112, 119, 127

3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 17, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 36, 39, 41, 42–44, 52, 53, 54−61, 64, 70, 71, 74, 77, 79, 80, 83, 85, 86, 88, 89, 94, 120, 123, 126, 129, 139, 141, 142

Lament Prayers

6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143

Confession of Sin