Psalm of the Day: A Companion to Donald Whitney's "Praying the Bible"

3580.Psalm of the Day.docx

Made this for myself! Figured someone else might benefit from it!

This is a personal book that will allow you to more easily pray the Psalms and Proverbs according to Donald Whitney's plan in his book "Praying the Bible". The plan gives the option each day of choosing one of 5 Psalms to pray through (and in this book the Proverbs are also an option). Having 5 Psalms to choose from for each day gives the reader (and pray-er) the benefit of choosing the Psalm (or Proverb) that most speaks to their emotional and spiritual state on any given day. The reader will often find that one of the 5 Psalms is uniquely fitted for them, and is a salve for their heart on that morning.

Here's how the plan works. The first Psalm on the list is the same Psalm as the date of the day of the month. Each of the additional 4 Psalms are simply adding 30 to the first for the day. So, on January 1st, you will have the option of reading Psalm 1, Psalm 31, Psalm 61, Psalm 91, or Psalm 121 (or in this book, Proverbs 1). The reader should scan the possible readings for the day, and choose to pray through the one that speaks to their situation and need most. The one exception to having the 5 to choose from is the 31st of the month, which gives you the choice of praying Psalm 119, Proverbs 31, Song of Songs (which isn't much longer than Psalm 119), the Lord's Prayer, or the High Priestly Prayer. For more on how to pray the Bible with this plan, see Donald Whitney's book referenced above (it really is a great read!). 

So why this personal book? This PB makes looking up the Psalms easier for the reader in a few ways. First, no math is needed, simply choose the chapter that corresponds with the day of the month each morning (I know adding 30 is so hard right?). Second, and this is really the point of the resource, I included the ESV Psalm titles, so the reader can quickly scan the Psalm titles, and more easily see which Psalm will be most helpful to them that day. I also have included the chapters of Proverbs since many people already have the habit of reading one chapter of Proverbs for each day of the month. I made my own Proverbs chapter titles as well, to allow the reader to get an idea of the content and compare it with the Psalm chapter titles to see which is most helpful on any given morning. I'll admit, my Proverbs chapter titles aren't great, and I borrowed ideas from "The Message" for them because it's one of the few resources that adds chapter headings to Proverbs (although I changed them a bit because they didn't match the tone of the ESV's Psalm headings). 

All this said, I hope this is a blessing to you, and helps you pray the Psalms. Enjoy!

Also- compile this as a monograph