Thirty Days Through the Psalms

Description of Thirty Days Through the Psalms (447 words)

The followers of Jesus Christ have always held the Psalms in the highest regard. Yet despite the dozens of times that the Psalms are used by Jesus and his followers in the New Testament, and the important place these ancient songs have had in Christian worship, many modern Christians have trouble appreciating the Psalms. Growing Christians understand that they should spend time in God's Word every day (including the Psalms), but have a hard time putting this resolution into practice. We struggled for two reasons: 1) we don't have a consistent, reasonable, reading plan to follow; and 2) we often don't understand what we are reading. Thirty Days Through the Psalms seeks to answers these two difficulties by offering a plan for reading through the entire book of Psalms with understanding over a month.

Thirty Days Through the Psalms is a nontechnical study in which the 150 Psalms have been divided into 30 daily readings of similar length (about 82 verses per day). The grouping of these psalms is based on: their types (laments, thanksgiving, salvation history); their possible uses in Jewish worship (covenant renewal, enthroning YHWH, etc); as well as traditional categories (songs of assent, penitential psalms, etc). Each day's reading includes a short introduction that gives background to the group of psalms being read that day.

The book seeks to open up the believers' understanding of the Psalms, and also to show them skills in interpreting and applying an ancient text from an alien culture to our spiritual life in the here and now. During the month the book efficiently presents most of the information covered in a college-level class over Psalms, so that using this guide repeatedly becomes a "mini-course" for believers who desire to know God's Word better and use it more effectively. Many of the insight present in Thirty Days Through the Psalms will also be helpful to church leaders who desire to use the Psalms in public worship. The hope is that Thirty Days Through the Psalms will encourage people to read through the Psalms regularly and then to use them more in their churches and personal Christian lives.

Along with the daily readings and their introductory notes, the book includes a general introduction to the Psalms, and appendices that list the psalms with their type, as well as studies on the special terms used in the titles of the psalms and the places in the New Testament where the psalms are quoted.

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