Faithful Steward Ministries and FSM Women's Outreach

Prayer is an earnest and familiar talking with God, to whom we declare all our miseries, whose support and help we implore and desire in our adversities, and whom we laud and praise for our benefits received. So that prayer contains the exposition of our sorrows, the desire of God’s defence, and the praising of His magnificent name, as the Psalms of David clearly do teach. 

– John Knox 

Yesterday in Sunday School the theme was prayer and the sermon was repentance. These two go hand in hand. Yet I often find folks praying for needs and desires rather than confessing and repenting BEFORE petitioning God for something.

One way we can get our prayer life back on track so to speak is to study and prayer through the Psalms. They are a guide book of sorts as to differing ways in which to approach God in Prayer.

“The more deeply we grow in the psalms, and the more often we pray them as our own, the more simple and rich our prayer will become.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

“Not without reason, it is my custom to call this book [Psalms] ‘ And Anatomy of All the Parts of the Soul’ since there is no emotion anyone will experience whose image is not reflected in this mirror.” – John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms

Below is a breakdown I found online https://standrews.ws/files/2017/11/Praying-with-the-Psalms.pdf that I thought was helpful:

Praying Through the Psalms
You can choose to work through all 150 Psalms in order or approach them thematically. There are a variety of ways to categorize the Psalms (with some overlap). Below are six commonly used themes:

• Psalms of Praise & Devotion: 8, 19, 23, 33, 65, 100, 103, 104, 111, 113-115, 117, 134-136, 145-150
• Psalms of Confession: 14, 32, 38, 51, 130
• Psalms of Lament (Pain, Complaint, Anger): 12, 22, 42, 44, 58, 60, 74, 79, 80, 83, 90, 106, 123, 137
• Psalms of Petition (Request): 3, 4, 13, 25, 26, 55-57
• Psalms of Intercession (Help): 12, 27, 44, 58
• Psalms of Thanksgiving: 30, 32, 34, 41, 65-67, 92, 105, 116, 124, 138