As we start into our new series, “The Tree and the Vine,” drawn from Psalm 1 and John 15, I wanted to share some thoughts I’ve share in other places about the value of the psalms for spiritual growth.

When people ask me about a good place to start reading the Bible I often refer them to the Gospels Paul’s letter knowns as Ephesians. Each of these books speaks of basic and deep truths about God and the revelation in Jesus Christ. But a quick next answer I have is to encourage people to spend time in the book of Psalms. In fact, I have come to believe that the psalms are essential for spiritual growth.

In the psalms, we learn how to connect with God through important spiritual practices of Scripture reading and prayer. The psalms are, first of all, part of God’s inspired word and, thus, reveal to us the character of God. Reading the psalms, we understand who God is and what it looks like to relate to Him. But the psalms are also the prayerbook of the Bible, teaching us how to hear God and respond to Him in prayer. The psalms bring together these two powerful resources—Scripture and prayer—like two wings enabling us to fly with and toward God in the spiritual life.

In the psalms, we also learn how to bring our whole selves to God. When we read the psalms, we will encounter both intellectual and emotional aspects of life brought into God’s presence. The wide-ranging and thoughtful reflection upon the significance of God’s revelation in Psalm 119 holds place alongside the deeply emotional heart-cries of Psalms 22 and 69. In fact, the entire range of human experience is captured in the psalms, from the heights of joy to the depths of despair. The writers are not afraid to bring fear, delight, shame, exuberance, repentance, and longing into prayer with God. As we read and pray the psalms we discover that we, too, can bring our whole selves to God.

While there are many ways to read and pray the psalms, I encourage two different approaches which I have found helpful. The first approach is to read one psalm per day, while sometimes breaking up longer psalms into two or more days. After, or even while, reading the psalm, one can pray all of the psalms or portions of the psalm to God. If there is a verse that captures your attention, ponder over those words in prayer. If the whole psalm captures you, then pray it all back to God. For example, the well-love words of Psalm 23 can easily be brought into prayer verse by verse or by just resting in prayer with one phrase, such as “he refreshes my soul.”

A second approach to praying the is to read through the entire psalter over the course of one month or two months, praying certain psalms in the morning and others in the evening. This is a common practice in many church traditions, perhaps most known through the daily psalm readings in the Book of Common Prayer. While this may seem like a lot of Scripture to move through in a day, I have found that book-ending the day with the psalms brings a regularity and structure to my relationship with God as I begin and end each day with God in prayer and Scripture. Many Christians recommend this approach to engaging with God in the psalms.

While there is much more that could be said, let me refer you to some other posts here on my blog that explores aspects of the Psalms:

• A five-part reflection on Psalm 1: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5
• “God’s Multifaceted Word: reflecting on Psalm 119”
• “Ascend: a series on the Psalms of Ascent”
• “Jesus Praying the Psalms of Ascent”
• “Songs of the Savior: Psalms for Advent”
• “The Mercy of Waiting: learning to pray with Psalm 130”
• “Finding Peace with God: praying Psalm 131”
• “Waiting on the Lord: Living with Hope in the Land Between”
• “What Love Is This?: a prayer reflection on Psalm 145“
• “Comprehensive Praise: some reflections on worship from Psalm 150”
• “Joining Jesus in Prayer: Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Praying the Psalms”