Psalms is a great book for the Christian heart. Many people enjoy reading part of Psalms every day! At 150 chapters, the book itself is rather daunting, so here are a few ideas for reading plans so that you might enjoy all the psalms.
One (N) a Day
An easy plan would be to simply read 1 psalm each day. Just start with Psalm 1 and then the next day go to Psalm 2, etc. This is certainly a good way. One difficulty I’ve faced with this way is that if I forget which psalm I read the day before, on some pages there are so many psalms it’s hard to bookmark it. Of course, it won’t hurt me to read the same psalm twice anyway! At this rate you can read the psalms in about 5 months. You can read Psalms twice in a year this way! One idea would be to read a psalm every day except Monday (or pick your day that works for you, then it would truly take you close to an exact calendar year.
The psalm-a-day plan can be easily modified to 2 psalms a day, etc. 5 psalms a day allows you to read this great book in a month!
5 a Day by Calendar Day
If you want to read the psalms in a month, another idea is to start on the 1st of a month and then read the psalm for that day and then just keep adding 30. Let’s say you decided to do this in June. On June 1 you would read Psalm 1, 31, 61, 91, and 121. On June 15 you would read Psalm 15, 45, 75, 105, and 135. By June 30, you would read Psalm 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150—and you would have completed the entire book.
I’ve done this plan and it is nice for a few reasons. Reason one is that the daily reading is about the same amount of time. So when you sit down to read, your reading time will rarely be exceptionally short or long. This helps ensure you will be able to make it through harder days where life is busier. Also, you don’t have to mark your spot. You just start with the psalm matching the day of the month and add 30…
Mix-a-Psalm
When my older kids were little I printed “Psalm 1” – “Psalm 150” on little slips of paper. I actually had “Proverbs 1” – “Proverbs 31” slips of paper as well. I put them all in a jar and then each evening I let each of my 3 kids (at the time I had only 3) pull out a slip of paper and we read whatever was on the paper. When the jar was empty we had read or listened to all of Psalms and Proverbs.
Note: We did the same thing with prayer requests. We had a large list of family members’ names, friends, etc., and each night we’d pull out a few of the slips and pray for that request. It was really neat!
Try Something
I hope one of these ideas piquéd your interest in reading Psalms. However you decide to work through this great book, I trust God will bless your desire to read His perfect Word!
What about you, dear reader? Do you have a reading plan that has worked well for you? Whether it is for Psalms or something else, please share in the comments for the edification of the saints.