Reading the Psalms with Luther: The Psalter for Individual & Family Devotions

by Martin Luther

This is an English translation of Luther's Summaries of the Psalms, 1531 which was originally done in 1993. This latest edition includes the ESV translation of the Psalms, Luther's introductions to each of the 150 psalms and a suggested schedule for reading the Psalter. The introductions demonstrate how Luther understood the Psalter as a Christ-centered book and how he used the psalms as the model for Christian prayer. Luther classifies each psalm as a psalm of prophecy, instruction, comfort, prayer, or thanksgiving and applies the message of the text to the life lived out under the cross. Luther also connects the psalms to the Ten Commandments and the petitions of the Lord's Prayer. For Luther, all aspects of the Christian's life, including the Psalms, relate to Christ and His Gospel of forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Genres: Devotional, Christianity, Faith, Christian, Theology, Religion, Christian Living

350 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German monk, theologian, university professor and church reformer whose ideas inspired the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western civilization.

Luther's theology challenged the authority of the papacy by holding that the Bible is the only infallible source of religious authority and that all baptized Christians under Jesus are a spiritual priesthood. According to Luther, salvation was a free gift of God, received only by true repentance and faith in Jesus as the Messiah, a faith given by God and unmediated by the church.

Luther's confrontation with Charles V at the Diet of Worms over freedom of conscience in 1521 and his refusal to submit to the authority of the Emperor resulted in his being declared an outlaw of the state as he had been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Because of the perceived unity of the medieval Church with the secular rulers of western Europe, the widespread acceptance of Luther's doctrines and popular vindication of his thinking on individual liberties were both phenomenal and unprecedented.

His translation of the Bible into the vernacular, making it more accessible to ordinary people, had a tremendous political impact on the church and on German culture. It furthered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation, and influenced the translation of the English King James Bible. His hymns inspired the development of congregational singing within Christianity. His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model for the practice of clerical marriage within Protestantism.

Much scholarly debate has concentrated on Luther's writings about the Jews. His statements that Jews' homes should be destroyed, their synagogues burned, money confiscated and liberty curtailed were revived and used in propaganda by the Nazis in 1933–45. As a result of this and his revolutionary theological views, his legacy remains controversial.

Reviews

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I began reading a few pages a day of this book when I found out I was pregnant last August. I wanted to read the entire book of Psalms to my baby, who we womb-named "Psalm", before he or she was given either to heaven or an earthly life. I'm 32 weeks along and have begun the book over again. This will be a daily staple until Christ one day calls me home.

[Michael Philliber · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Some of this I wrote back in 20212 when I first used this resource) Nice! Very, very nice! This little piece has the ESV Psalms pointed for chanting or responsive reading (the eight, easy-to-sing chant tones are laid out in the preface/intro section of the book and are easy to figure out, especially if you have a piano app for your cell phone etc.). The print is clear and useable for most people. Good margins on the sides of each page for notations. It even includes two schedules to systematically working through the Psalms for daily prayers. A very user-friendly work that's handy-sized.

Each Psalm has a very short Luther devotion that introduces each Psalm. Then, dispersed in various places around each Psalm (sometimes in the middle and at the end, sometimes simply at the end) is a Lutheresque prayer drawn from Rev. F. Kuegele and his "Book of Devotion: The Psalms". These prayers are thematically guided by the specific Psalm, and delightful meditations and prayers. I have retained many of them for other times. They include prayers for the country, for preservation from enemies, for the church in evil days, for ministers, for supplying us with all we need, for a cheerful faith, and much more. Great for family worship or individual devotions. I happily recommend the work.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was comprised of an introduction by Luther, a prayer from another Lutheran source, and the ESV translation of the Psalms pointed for chanting. Luther's summaries were not terribly helpful and somewhat repetitive. He started out trying to tie each Psalm to one of the Ten commandments, and part way through the Psalter wisely gave up. The real value to the book was the prayers--I often enjoyed these and would return to the book just for these.

[Mwrogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I began using this book in January to help me study the book of Psalms. I coupled it with my study Bible and read one psalm per day except on Sundays (as we would be reading a psalm in church). I have read them before but this time they really spoke to me. God’s word is truly living and active and breathing. The same words teach you different lessons at different points in your life.

Although there are 150 psalms and they are written by different people during different time periods, there repeatedly teach us about:

1) God’s steadfast love for us
2) God’s deliverance of His people (the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt is repeated often, more than any other event)
3) God is our refuge (over and over we are told this!)
4) all He wants from us is the “sacrifice” of thanksgiving.

This really is the crux of it all though! Right? God created us because He loves us. We constantly screw things up and need to be delivered. We run to Him for protection and He provides us refuge in the name of His son Jesus. And what does He ask of us? Not money or works…..but thanksgiving! That’s it.

What a beautiful, consistent Lord we have! Thank you Jesus!

[Jeremiah Gumm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent devotional collection of the Psalms with comments from Luther and prayers for every Psalm.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful devotional. I will come back to reading this often. The Psalms can be so comforting.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this book quite as much as I had hoped I would. Psalms is my favorite book of the Bible, and I was looking forward to see what Martin Luther had to say about them.

The format of the book is good. It begins with a preface, and then there is some instruction on how to chant psalms if you so desire. I didn't do that but a couple of times. At the heading of each of the psalms, there is a paragraph or two from Luther's works, wherein he divides the psalms into several categories: psalms of "prophecy, instruction, comfort, prayer, or thanks. He then assigns each psalm to one of the Ten Commandments. If I remember correctly, though, that is only specified in the first twenty or so, leaving it to the reader to figure it out afterward.

Following the introduction to each psalm comes the text of the psalm, and in this case the ESV is used. Then after the psalm is a prayer, but the prayers were not, apparently, written by Luther, but compiled by a Rev. F. Kuegel. Sometimes the "prayer" is a stanza or two of a hymn, taken from the Lutheran Service Book, in which case the hymn number and stanza number are included. I do wish that the prayers had been written by Luther.

In cases of lengthier psalms, they are broken into segments, with an additional prayer after each segment. There is no additional commentary, though. The 119th psalm was broken into segments of 16 verses, which is two of the "stanzas" of that particular psalm, which is usually broken into 8 verse stanzas.

It was enjoyable, though, just not as much as I had hoped. I will keep it on my shelf for future possible readings.

Recommended for anyone who enjoys the psalms, prayer, and writings of Martin Luther.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband and I read through this together, one psalm in the morning and one at night. Each psalm is preceded by some meditations and thoughts of Martin Luther. He started out by trying to relate each psalm to one or more of the Ten Commandments but fizzled out on that after 30 or so Psalms in which his comments on that score were pretty repetitive and he realized that it was no longer helpful to continue on that way. Each psalm is also followed by a short prayer and these were not Luther’s but rather came from a variety of sources, I think. The psalms themselves are presented in a way that lends easily to singing them using some of the chants found at the beginning of the book, which we did a few times. For the most part, we enjoyed Luther’s commentary on the Psalms, even though he often had a singular lens through which he saw them (having to do with his own historical circumstance and his persecution by the Catholic Church). Still, this is a beautiful volume and it was a pleasure to read through the Psalms “with Luther,” so to speak.

[Reeds]

Quote from a commenter: so I won't forget
Commentary from Marin Luther (the 16th-century Reformer). What I most enjoy about his approach is how he relates each Psalm to the 10 Commandments and the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, which I found helpful for meditating on what the particular Psalm had to teach me.

I will note a shortfall of the book is that Luther's commentary dwindles off and becomes less incisive for some of the later Psalms. It is as though he started the project and then ran out of steam. Which is probably what happened--he always had many irons in the fire, and some of his works have that unfinished quality to them.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather than just reread the Psalms, I looked for a commentary and selected Reading the Psalms with Luther. It includes all 150 psalms in order and an introduction and a prayer for each by Martin Luther. The Psalms were important to Luther and he read them everyday. Some speculate that he read all of them hundreds of times.

The commentaries and the prayers were gathered from a variety of Luther’s writings. They are unique because he classifies them according to theme and how each fits into the Ten Commandments.

Reading the Psalms with Luther’s comments was a special experience. Someday I will reread the book.

[Gabriel Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel a little bad about writing this review as I was unable to finish the book entirely. Essentially, the book is divided into each Psalm with the author providing a short paragraph devotional by Luther along with one of his prayers. I thought it started off well enough, but by around the 40th Psalm, all of the devotionals started to run together and by the time I hit the 78th Psalm, I put the book down as I didn’t feel like I had read any devotional that hadn’t already been used before. I would recommend using other resources for studying the Psalms and Luther.

[Alexlancaster1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful version of the Psalter, which includes Dr. Luther’s insightful, brief introductory comments. Each Psalm is pointed for chanting, with tones provided in the front of the volume (the same tones as may be found in the Lutheran Service Book). The Psalms are taken from the English Standard Version. Be warned that this ESV edition is different from the ESV version of the Psalms found in the Lutheran Study Bible. That led to some moments of confusion when my wife and I used these two resources for devotions together. Perks of a postmodern English translation that changes every few years!

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Psalms help our prayers

I enjoyed the commentary from Luther! It's faith building and helps our prayers! So precious to read and understand that God delights to forgive us! We are not alone!

[Lisa Brickman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful!

This is a wonderful little book. It will help anyone to be familiar with the Psalms and to pray them.

[Nate Hochmuth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent devotional for reading through the Psalms

[John Calderón]

It's incredible that sometime we have to go back to find a new and fresh perspective in the Word. An amazing book that I'm sure will be a blessing to many lives.

[Michael Glaub · Rating 4 out of 5]

Used it as a daily devotional, I would recommend reading Psalms this way, as Luther gives a introduction to each psalm.

[Becky Pliego · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful.

[Cliff · Rating 5 out of 5]

1st reading 2012, 2nd reading 2016

[Bradford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent devotion tool for busy people.

[K B · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best devotional I've ever used. It will be an "annual" going forward!