Why Christians Still Read the Psalms
Three thousand years old, yet the most prayed book in the world. Why the Psalms endure for every generation.
The Psalms were written over a span of roughly a thousand years and compiled into their final form around 2,500 years ago. Yet they remain the most prayed, sung, and memorized book in the world. What explains such endurance?
First, the Psalms are honest. They do not prettify human life. They contain praise and despair, anger and gratitude, confidence and doubt. Because they cover the whole range of human experience, every generation finds itself in them.
Second, the Psalms are God-centered. Even in lament, they turn the heart toward God. They train us to bring everything to Him rather than to ourselves or to the world. That orientation never goes out of date.
Third, the Psalms point to Christ. Jesus said the Psalms speak of Him (Luke 24:44), and the New Testament quotes them more than any other Old Testament book. Christians read the Psalms because they are the very prayers of Christ, prayed by His body across the centuries.
Related Psalms
Psalm 1
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”
Two paths, two destinies: the righteous rooted like a tree by streams, the wicked blown away like chaff.
Read morePsalm 23
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
The beloved shepherd psalm: provision, guidance, comfort, and eternal dwelling.
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