Reading plan · 10 days
10 Psalms for Hard Times
For anyone in a hard season who needs honest words to pray, especially when their own have run out.
The Psalms have carried God’s people through every kind of trouble for three thousand years, because they are gloriously honest. They shout, they weep, they doubt out loud, and then they remember who God is. When you do not know what to pray, pray a psalm; it gives you words that are already God-approved. Over ten days, read each psalm slowly, perhaps aloud, and let it pray on your behalf.
-
Day 1: Psalm 23
The shepherd psalm. Lack, fear and death are all named, and the shepherd is bigger than all three. A good place to begin.
-
Day 2: Psalm 34
A psalm for the crushed. "The LORD is near to the brokenhearted." Taste and see, it says, that he is good, even now.
-
Day 3: Psalm 46
God is our refuge and strength when the earth itself seems to give way. Its centre is a command worth obeying today: be still, and know that he is God.
-
Day 4: Psalm 27
Confidence in the dark. Whom shall I fear, when the Lord is my light? It ends by telling the soul to wait, and be strong, and take heart.
-
Day 5: Psalm 121
A traveller’s psalm for the long road. The God who keeps you neither slumbers nor sleeps; he watches your coming and your going.
-
Day 6: Psalm 18
When you need something solid to stand on, here is rock, fortress and shield piled up in a single breath. God is not fragile, and neither, in him, are you.
-
Day 7: Psalm 103
A deliberate counting of mercies on a day you may not feel like counting. "Forget not all his benefits." Gratitude is a discipline before it is a feeling.
-
Day 8: Psalm 145
The Lord is near to all who call on him. Not the polished, not the impressive, just all who call on him in truth.
-
Day 9: Psalm 90
When life feels short and fragile, this psalm sets it against a God who is from everlasting to everlasting. Our days are small; his are not.
-
Day 10: Psalm 118
End on the day itself: this is the day the Lord has made. Even a hard day is one he has made and is in. Rejoice, as an act of trust.
The Psalms never pretend the trouble is small. They simply refuse to let it be the last word. Keep them close; they are a prayer book for the days when you have no prayers of your own.