Which psalm for which need

A guide to the Church’s own prayer book.

The psalms were Christ’s prayer book, and they have been the Church’s ever since. There are a hundred and fifty of them and they cover every human condition — including several the modern prayer manual leaves out, like rage and despair.

Which Psalm for What

• Guilt: Psalm 51, the Miserere. Also 32, 130.
• Fear and danger: Psalm 91. Also 23, 27.
• Grief: Psalm 23, 42, 130.
• Despair: Psalm 88 — the one psalm that ends in darkness with no resolution, and it is in the Bible on purpose.
• Anger and injustice: Psalm 10, 13, 94. The psalms complain to God far more freely than we do.
• Gratitude: Psalm 103, 116, 138.
• Praise: Psalm 8, 19, 148, 150.
• Longing for God: Psalm 42, 63, 84.
• Trust: Psalm 121, 131 — the second is four lines long and one of the most beautiful things in Scripture.

How to Pray Them

1. Read slowly, aloud if possible. They were written to be sung.
2. Do not skip the difficult ones. The psalter is honest about anger, envy and abandonment, and praying those lines is permitted.
3. Pray them as Christ’s own prayer, and as the Church’s — you are never praying them alone.
4. If you want a rhythm, pray the psalms of Morning and Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours.

About the Psalms

St. Athanasius observed that whereas most of Scripture speaks to us, the psalms speak for us. That is why the Church has never replaced them, and why they are still, after three thousand years, the most useful thing to reach for when you do not know what to say.