WEEK 1

Sunday: Psalm 7:10-11
Shield and Judge
When we pray the Psalms, we discover the richness of God's character. In addition, we discover we should not think simplistically about God in either/or terms as if He is just a judge or only a shield. He is both at the same time. He is the God who protects us and the God who pronounces judgment upon us. In Jesus Christ we see both of these sides of God's rich character perfectly coming together: our Saviour and our Judge.


Monday: Psalm 12:6
Like silver refined
Many of our words are dishonest and deceptive, meaningless and insignificant, tainted and impure. God’s Words are not. They are pure and unpolluted. They are flawless like silver refined in furnace of clay, purified seven times. That makes God’s words full of life and salvation; infinitely precious and endlessly enjoyable. God demonstrated this in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.


Tuesday: Psalm 16:2
My joy
Whoever prays the Psalms in Jesus’ name, will begin to see Jesus more directly in the Psalms. He is the Lord apart from whom I have no good thing. I am allowed to say to Him, “No one beats You!” This is because in Jesus Christ I meet Yahweh Himself, the God of the covenant. This is how I learn to pray and sing the Psalms with my eyes fixed on Jesus Christ.


Wednesday: Psalm 21:6
The joy of God’s presence
David, the king who is speaking in Psalm 21, is someone who is filled with joy because God is blessing him in all sorts of ways, such as with power, glory, honour and answers to prayers. The king is even eternally blessed with joy because of being allowed to live in God’s presence. In this psalm, David is manifesting the characteristics of Jesus who is also King. God eternally blessed this King with the joy of his presence. What God does with the Lord Jesus Christ, He does with all of his sons and daughters in Jesus’ name.


Thursday: Psalm 25:14
Friendship and community
It is incredible how intimately God wants to fellowship with those who fear Him. He actually becomes their friend! This kind of friendship knows an intimacy that is unsurpassed. This intimate friendship is one of the goals of the covenant of grace.


Friday: Psalm 30:5
A lifetime
Many think there is just as much anger in God as there is love. Consequently, so they think, you always have to wait and see how God is going to treat you—with anger or with love. But this kind of thinking is a fatal mistake because God’s anger is his wounded love. This wounded love lasts only a moment, but his love lasts a lifetime. This is because God is love. In Jesus Christ, God demonstrated this in the past and continues to demonstrate it in the present.


Saturday: Psalm 36:9
Your light
People often seek the fountain of their life in wrong places, such as in themselves, their relationships or material possessions. Psalm 36 expresses in a unique way that the fountain of life can only be found in God. Only his light makes our life light. Therefore pray, “Lord, show me your light and in your light make my life light. Show me the Lord Jesus who is your radiant light so that his light may shine through me.”

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WEEK 2

Sunday: Psalm 39:5
Air and life
When you are reading through the Psalms, it’s good to be reminded of the transience of life. Life is no more than air, a little breeze, compared to eternity. That is why we should not cling to life and all the things we consider to be so important. We will cultivate the right attitude to life when God in Christ increasingly becomes everything for us. In Him, we now already experience eternity in the midst of our temporal existence


Monday: Psalm 46:10
Acknowledge God
We are often overcome by the violence of war and the disturbances in creation we experience in this world and we witness the uproar of the nations with awe and dismay. When that happens, Psalm 46 helps us to see things in the right perspective: God is exalted above all of this. This majestic God is interested in you. He has demonstrated that in Jesus Christ. Acknowledge Him as your majestic and loving God.


Tuesday: Psalm 51:9
Close your eyes
Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes: “We encounter a prayer for forgiveness in the Psalms less frequently than we would expect. Most of the psalms assume the complete assurance of the forgiveness of sins.” He continues: “There appears to be a leaving behind of your sins and a being comforted in doing this for Jesus’ sake.” Once you have confessed your sins, may the prayer of Psalm 51 encourage you to close your eyes to your sins and to open them to the new life you have in Jesus Christ through his Spirit.


Wednesday: Psalm 57:11
Glory on earth
Not only do the Psalms teach us to pray, they also teach us to praise. Praise is giving God the most important place in your life because God wants to fill you and the earth with his glory. That’s why He wants us to pray to Him. Can you imagine what would happen if every day more Christians would start praying that God’s glory would invade this earth?


Thursday: Psalm 62:8
Pour out your heart
The Psalms are full of encouraging words, such as words of faith, confidence and protection. Today, God encourages you to pour out your heart and allow your trust in Him to fill your heart because He is a refuge. You can always go to Him with your difficulties, questions and concerns. Always!


Friday: Psalm 70:4
Rejoice and be glad
Sometimes it is said that Evangelical Christians superficially emphasize joy and gladness because they do not know the depth of the Psalms. That may be true, but they at least know the height of the Psalms. Verse four is a wonderful expression of joy and gladness. In verse four, you have a foretaste of the gospel: when you seek your happiness in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will rejoice and be glad.


Saturday: Psalm 73:25
Nothing besides You
Asaph the author of Psalm 73, comes to a very important conclusion near the end of his psalm. When he sees how the prosperity of the wicked stands in sharp contrast to their bitter end at death, his faith is strengthened that there is no one beside God. Sometimes, a godless life looks attractive. It is, however, meaningless, empty and fruitless. That’s why Asaph teaches us to sing: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.” Jesus, the Mediator of the covenant of grace, showed us the face of this God.

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WEEK 3

Sunday: Psalm 77:7
Rejected?
Sometimes we can be weighed down by big and profound questions. During times of loneliness and misery, mourning and disaster all our securities can suddenly disappear, and distrust begins to triumph over trust. Does God, perhaps, no longer love me? Has He rejected me forever? There is only one way to deal with these kind of questions: Look at the Lord Jesus Christ. God rejected Him so that we would never more be rejected. The cross is the symbol of God’s eternal love.


Monday: Psalm 80:3
Your shining face
Verse 3 is a refrain that occurs no fewer than three times in Psalm 80. Three times the psalmist prays that God would change his circumstances and bring salvation. This happens when God shows his shining face. God’s loving and shining face shows how much He is concerned about our goodness, truth and beauty. If we want to see this shining face, then we should look at Jesus, the Mediator of the covenant of grace, for Jesus is now the light of God’ shining face. In the Lord Jesus Christ we see the radiant glory of the Eternal One.


Tuesday: Psalm 88:1
I cry out before you
Psalm 88 is the most somber of all the psalms. The only light shining in this psalm is the fact the psalmist is still going to God in his need and with his difficulties. When you really feel oppressed, you experience life as a deep, dark valley, when you are wasting away because of your sorrow, pray Psalm 88. Identify with the psalmist and realize once again that you can always go to God with all your difficulties. Cry out your need to Him. That’s also what Jesus did: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And then be silent and still in the midst of all your misery


Wednesday: Psalm 91:4
Under his wings
How priceless it is to know God as the One who protects us! He protects us in times of need, such as concern, sickness and death. He protects us when we are being assailed by temptation. When you feel you are losing this kind of faith, pray Psalm 91 and believe it with all of your heart: the God of our Lord Jesus Christ is a God with wings. He is a granite cave in which you can hide. In Him you are safe!


Thursday: Psalm 97:5
As wax
You actually have to see this happen before your eyes: a massive mountain range, stretching high and inaccessibly above the clouds. These mountains melt like wax when God appears with the fire of his presence because God is so endlessly bigger and more majestic and powerful than those mountains. For Him, they are like little candle stumps that melt with only a small amount of his fire. Do you personally know this majestic God? In Jesus Christ you see God’s majesty face to face.


Friday: Psalm 102:23
Broken
The Psalms are full of the brokenness of people’s lives. That’s one of the reasons they speak to us so much; we identify with the psalmist, recognizing our own pain and brokenness in his. The Psalms connect the difficulties of this life with God’s hand because He is involved in our difficulties. When your strength is broken, you trust that God is the One who did this so that you would look to Him and go to Him to find new strength. When you do, you find strength in weakness, strength in the Lord Jesus Christ.


Saturday: Psalm 106:4
Your people and your love
God is a God who eternally remains faithful to his people because He loves his people and each individual member of his people. That’s why, as a member of God’s community, you can pray: “Remember me when you show favor to your people.” Yet, God does not just save individuals, but a community of people. The Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated this when He died for the sins of his people. Do you know God as the God of his people?

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WEEK 4

Sunday: Psalm 108:4
Higher than the heavens
Praying is learning to think big about God. When we focus on our own lives in which we often experience a lot of difficulty and concern, lack of love and selfishness, we can begin to have small thoughts about God’s love. With David, however, we learn to lift our heads upwards and look at the heavens infinitely high above us. That’s how big and infinite the God who loves us is and who has shown us his love in Jesus Christ.


Monday: Psalm 115:1
Not to us
“Life is not about me.” It’s good to say this out loud in a self-centered culture. It’s even better when we internalize this in our prayers. We ourselves are not the center of our life, but God is. Life does not revolve around my success, my failures, my love, and my inability. Instead, everything revolves around the only name worthy of all adoration and praise: the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him we will find all the love and faithfulness we long for.


Tuesday: Psalm 118:8
The middle
Someone figured out that Psalm 118 (right between the shortest and longest psalms) forms the center of the Bible. This is, however, wrong. Psalm 117 forms the center. Nevertheless, what we read in Psalm 118:8 is very beautiful: It is better to take refuge in the LORD because people—no matter how loving and faithful—will sooner or later disappoint. God never does!


Wednesday: Psalm 119:55
Your name
Psalm 119 is a psalm full of love for the instruction of the Word of God because this is what the law is all about. God Himself shows us the way of life by focusing his attention on us and speaking to us. That’s why you should never experience God’s law apart from God. When you think of God’s Name and love his Name, God’s law will begin to shine with life for you.


Thursday: Psalm 119:167
Intimate love
When they hear the word “law,” many think of being compelled to do things they would rather not do. Or they think of rules and prohibitions that form a sort of barb-wired fence around their life that hems them in. When—in Christ—we learn to personally know the God of the law, we will embrace his law and intimately learn to love it, because our well-being depends upon it. Isn’t it wonderful that we have a God who shows us the way in Christ!


Friday: Psalm 127:2
During your sleep
Praying Psalm 127 can be a liberating experience in a world in which we often live at a harried and exhausting pace. Obviously God’s thoughts about all our busyness are not the same as ours. We think that rising early in the morning, staying up late at night and wearing ourselves down will bring us a blessing. God teaches us that He gives us his blessing during our sleep. Isn’t this what Jesus also teaches: Seek first the kingdom of God and all you need will be given to you.


Saturday: Psalm 132:14
God’s dwelling
God Himself speaks in the Psalms. He speaks about his deepest longing, namely, that He wants to dwell among his children and have a resting place from which to abundantly bless and provide for his people. God’s resting place--then Zion, now the Lord Jesus Christ--is the source of all the blessings God wants to give us. God desires to dwell in and among you in Jesus Christ through his Spirit so He can bless you and provide for you. Do you know God as the God who dwells in you in Jesus Christ?

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WEEK 5

Sunday: Psalm 139:5
Hemmed in
You can hide in the Psalms, especially in Psalm 139. This psalm sparkles with security and relationship because with David I can pray: Lord, You are around me, behind me, before me, above me and under me. I am surrounded by your love and attention. I am never able to escape the warmth of your heart. You lay your hand upon me. And I lay my hand in yours.


Monday: Psalm 145:3
God is great!
As the Psalter comes to a close, it breaks forth in abundant thanksgiving because the movement you encounter in the individual psalms—from lamentation to rejoicing—you also encounter is the Psalter as a whole. There is an abundance of worship and adoration because God is so much greater than our thoughts. This great and majestic God, who is infinitely interested in you, is worth all of your worship. In Jesus Christ you see the face of this God.


Tuesday: Psalm 146:1,2
Praise the Lord, o my soul
Giving praise is not always easy because difficulties can hinder this praise. When this happens, you sometimes need to talk to yourself as the psalmist does. “Come, my soul, praise the LORD!” When you have said this to yourself, you will notice that an amazing thing occurs: what you have just said, also actually happens: you begin to praise the LORD! Not just once every now and then, but throughout your whole life. You never become tired of praising God because God is so praiseworthy.


Wednesday: Psalm 147:1
How good it is!
Some truths take time to shoot roots in our lives. One of those truths is: How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise Him! Praising God is not just an obligation we obey with rote obedience. No, it really is good to praise God! Stronger yet, it is a glorious thing to glorify God by taking the attention off yourself and focusing it on God! Praising God changes you. It changes you into a different kind of person: someone with more love, adoration and humility.


Thursday: Psalm 148:3, 4
The heavens praise the Lord.
When I fall short in praising the Lord—and I do fall short—then I comfort myself with the thought that God is never without praise and adoration because the heavens praise Him. This is the way He made the heavens. The sun, moon, stars are one majestic hymn of praise to God. That’s why they always do what I fall short in doing.


Friday: Psalm 149:2
Rejoice in your Amighty Maker
No one compares to Him: the almighty Maker of heaven and earth! It’s a wonderful experience to rejoice in Him. Not just on your own—that, too—but together with other believers. We are God’s people and a kingdom of priests. With all our differences we have this in common that we are creations of the Almighty Maker. We are followers of the only Powerful King. Rejoice in your Lord. Yes, one more time: rejoice in your Lord!


Saturday: Psalm 150:2
Surpassing greatness
The Psalms end with a song that is all praise. This psalm contains no questions. No darkness is mentioned nor any doubt. Just praise. Whoever prays the psalms can only come to this conclusion: God is so immeasurably great and his deeds so infinitely powerful that the only fitting response is adoration and praise. Praise the LORD! Hallelujah!