Psalms in 30 Days: A Prayer Guide Through the Psalter

30 Days

by Trevin K. Wax

From generation to generation, many Christians have adopted the habit of praying every month through all 150 psalms—songs that form the bedrock of both corporate worship and individual devotion. Through thousands of years of memorization, recitation, and singing, the people of God have found in this book a God-centered view of reality—words that put into perspective all our emotions, conflicting desires, times of suffering, and experiences of faith and doubt.

In Psalms in 30 Days, Trevin Wax has adapted a centuries-old approach to reading the psalms by providing a "Morning," "Midday" and "Evening" pattern—following the Scriptural precedent for praying three times a day. This journey through the psalms, as translated in the Christian Standard Bible® (CSB), also features other songs from the Bible, as well as written prayers from faithful Christians who have gone before us. Here is a guide to praying all the psalms every month by—three times a day—lifting your eyes above your circumstances and reminding yourself that God is the blazing center of all things.

Psalms in 30 Days features the highly readable, highly reliable text of the Christian Standard Bible® (CSB). The CSB stays as literal as possible to the Bible's original meaning without sacrificing clarity, making it easier to engage with Scripture's life-transforming message and to share it with others.

Genres: Christian, Devotional, Prayer, Faith, Religion, Christian Non Fiction

353 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 31, 2020

About the author

Trevin Wax is the Bible and Reference Publisher for LifeWay Christian Resources. A former missionary to Romania, Trevin hosts a blog at The Gospel Coalition and regularly contributes to The Washington Post, Religion News Service, World, and Christianity Today, which named him one of thirty-three millennials shaping the next generation of evangelicals. His previous books include Counterfeit Gospels, Clear Winter Nights, and Gospel-Centered Teaching. He and his wife Corina have three children.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Twas fitting for the Psalms to round up the end of a whirlwind year. Thankful that we have a God who is near to the broken-hearted - that a broken spirit is a sacrifice pleasing to God. That God desires to have us know how we feel. That we get to Praise God in every season. I enjoyed the chance to meditate on scripture morning, midday, and evening, equipped with the Psalms, Blessings, Canticles, Glorias, and the Lord’s Prayer. I loved reading “Glory be to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, world without end.” How beautiful is our God

[Sharon Weinschreider · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely book using many features of the Book of Common Prayer. Each day is set up with a prayer time and Psalm reading for Morning, Midday, and Night.

Pros: - If you read through the whole book you will read through the entire book of Psalms in 30 days.
- All the Psalms are included in their entirety.
- Many of the prayers and canticles are beautiful
Cons: - Only available in the CSB which in my opinion is not the most beautiful for the Psalms
- Setting aside the time 3 times a day was a big challenge.
- Some of the "Confessions of Faith" were totally unfamiliar and from different sources
If I go through it again, I would modify it for my own use.

[Cole Mason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful. My heart is more full because of reading and meditating through this.

[Marly · Rating 5 out of 5]

HIGHLY recommend going through this prayer book!!! It has enriched my prayer life in so many ways over the past month and helped me develop more habits of prayer. Definitely going to be using this at least every other month!

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

The delight and discipline of prayer.

What a joy it was to spend a month reading and praying through all 150 psalms. I didn’t think I’d have the stamina, but I found it so calming, necessary, and even looked forward to each day’s portion. It was never drudgery. I enjoyed the regularity of certain thrice daily repeated prayers interspersed amongst the psalms, even memorizing them after the first week or so. The reminder to praise, thank, confess every day was a boon to my own prayer discipline. Excellent book and, even though I’ve finished reading it, one that I’ll never really finish reading.

[Dane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really excellent compilation of the psalms sprinkled with prayers from the common book of prayer. I also really enjoyed the canticle and Lord’s Prayer daily. It does get a bit repetitive if you read the morning, midday, and evening readings all together but overall it served a great purpose.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful way to read and pray through the Psalms, other scriptures, and historical prayers. The book is easy to follow and doesn’t have to be read in 30 days. It will be a blessing to you no matter how fast or slow you read and pray through it. This book would make an excellent gift.

[Fallon · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars ✨

Amazing. The prayers are fantastic with the daily psalms. You can read all together or follow the format, or go your own pace. It probably took me closer to 60 days because I wanted to dwell in the Word -- during the psalms and then the prayers and sometimes quotes.

[Michael Goforth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book!

It’s a powerful resource that can guide your daily worship. You don’t have to read through it in 30 days either.

[Andrew Wolgemuth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful way to walk through the Psalms (even as I completed it in about half the 30 Day target). Wonderful prayers and reflections alongside the clearly presented text of Psalms.

[Kirk Metzger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful book for me to have a renewed sense of prayer. Trevin did a good job of adding in helpful prayers from the church throughout history as well. I would have preferred some older confessions being thrown in there instead of one of the newer ones, but that’s my only critique.

[Caleb · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not just the psalms - it's creeds and prayers too. And there's this tension - three daily readings (morning, noon, and evening.) And since there's so much ancillary material, you're either overwhelmed or rushed. I would love a volume from crossway with just the Psalms. (not the Getty one, that one literally smells weird.)

[Sara Fukuda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this was wonderful.
I’m sort of a devotional connoisseur, this was my favorite I’ve ever done or seen. Highly recommend!

[Ruth Dahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this! This is a great reading plan to read all the Psalms in one month, and to do some family devotions. Each day is split into 3 parts, with morning, afternoon, and evening sections for each day. Each daily section opens with a Scripture verse, a canticle, and a prayer, and ends with a benediction or closing verse, so it is not just the Psalms.

The morning and evening sections also contain a confession of sin, and I've really found it useful to walk through a daily confession. The midday section is the shortest, which I appreciate! It's perfect to do before my lunch.

[Edward Meshell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great tool for reading and praying through the psalms!

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

More easy to approach than the Book of Common Prayers, for those of us who didn't grow up with it. I enjoyed the inclusion of prayers from various Christians over the ages (a nice surprise was the prayer by Jane Austen) but didn't particularly like that the editor chose to include The Lord's Prayer and the Gloria Patri ("Glory be") three times a day which started to give me a sense of rote recitation and which I definitely started to skim by the end of the month. I think the biggest plus is the way the editor has spread out the psalms into chunks of similar lengths (thus Psalm 119 is spread over 2.3 days) while mostly keeping the psalms in order.

This book was helpful to read once over the course of a month, to get the pattern of reading the psalms daily, but now that I have a sense of that rhythm I think I'll stick to one of the monthly psalms reading plans available in various Bible phone apps.

[Evan Steele · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a treasure. Just finished reading through this book with several people this month and was so impressed with how well this served as a discipleship tool.

Wax lays out the Psalms over the course of 90 sessions (Morning, Midday, and Evening for 30 days) Snuggled into each section are other Scriptures, prayers, and confessions designed to strengthen faith and encourage the reader.

I have been impressed lately that the best way to study Scripture is with and for others. This collection is primed to be read alongside of a group. I had a couple of text threads going as I read through this. That added a layer of accountability to do the readings, but much more importantly it was wonderful to share insights and impressions from the different psalms, canticles, and prayers.

I would highly recommend this collection to any Christian.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a weird one to rate. The division of the psalms was nicely done (even with a few out of order to help the flow/timing of the book). Many of the readings were excellent. I didn't like the reliance on the "Glory Be" (or whatever it's called) and The Lord's Prayer for every devotion. Three times a day for 30 days sometimes felt rote. That's probably more a personality issue than a textual one, though, so take it as it is.

There's also no aid for praying the psalms, which is sort of nice(?).

And at its current price of $0, it's hard to beat as a means to help organize better devotional time.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a beautiful prayer book. I enjoyed reading and praying the psalms and discovered some beautiful prayers. The Gloria and the Lord’s Prayer became very repetitive for me. The challenge of a prayer book is authentic communication with our Lord. The challenge of authentic communication is dedication and focus, in which a prayer book is a help. A conundrum! It was sometimes challenging to fit in the midday readings/prayer time. I often grouped it with the evening.

[Drew Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've loved using this as a daily devotional. One of the best resources I've found to improve daily prayer - morning, midday, and evening. Highly recommend.

[J.K. Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: Must read


Level: Quick, easy; over 300 pages, but meant to be spread over 90 readings


Summary


This is a 30 day devotional through all the Psalms, with Morning, Midday, and Evening readings, based on the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) and other prayer books. All reading start with a call to prayer, include Psalms, and the Gloria Patri. The Morning and Evening readings are slightly longer and include Confession, Blessing, Canticle, Lord' Prayer, and what he labels Prayers of the Church, which is a prayer from either the BCP or someone in Church History - Augustine, Luther, etc.

My Thoughts


This may be my favorite devotional of all time. At least the format, and prayers, etc. outside of the Psalms; I'm not a huge fan of the CSB Psalms, but it certainly isn't a bad version (there are worse ones that are far more popular). If you have ever used the BCP, this will be pretty familiar by mixing the Daily Offices (all four - Morning, Midday, Evening, & Compline) with the daily prayer (Psalms), but in a daily devotional format (not reading Psalms, then flipping to various canticles, collects). I really enjoyed Wax's collection of prayers of the church; it was a solid mix of old, very old, newer, prayer book, and also famous and less known prayers. 

If you have never used the BCP, you may want to after this book. Being something of a BCP light, but with just the Psalms and not the full office readings (the whole Bible in a year) is a great introduction. This devotional is also a good way to introduce someone to Psalms readings. Reading through the Psalms monthly dates back hundreds, if not thousands of years, and has been practiced by millions of Christians. 

I am more used to the Morning/Evening breakdown, but the Midday was a nice touch, it was shorter than the others, so if I couldn't get to it at lunch, I'd either read it when I got home from work or add it to the Evening (which I think is shorter than the Morning, but not by much). On average, you read five Psalms a day, so it works to something like a 2-1-2 (though obviously not that nice and easy as sometimes you may read up 9 in a day as in the 140's, or may spend days in one Psalm, as in 119).

There is no commentary or thoughts written regarding the Psalms, as this follows the prayer book model, which may seem different to those more used to the modern 'daily devotional' style. I personally prefer this style, as the 'daily devotion' can be hit or miss and oftentimes it seems the author had a short passage in mind before picking a verse (or whichever Psalm, if it is one of the many Psalms devotionals). If you want to keep reading the Psalms, but prefer that style, Keller's is probably the best and he stretches it to last a whole year. However, the prayer book style has been lost and often it seems daily reading/devotionals have become overly complicated. Martin Luther reportedly told people to say/read a Psalm and then say the Lord's Prayer and get on with your day. Luckily, we are more literate and have infinitely more access to books/materials than even the richest parishioner from 500 years ago. That doesn't mean we have to over complicate it, but being able to read all the Psalms (not just recite the few we have memorized from church) and other prayers/confessions is the best of both worlds. If you have any interest in the Psalms or daily prayer, this is a must read. If you already reading the Psalms on a monthly basis, swap this in for a month a year to great benefit. 
More reviews at MondayMorningTheologian.com

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

First sentence: For generations, Christians have prayed and sung the psalms. It was the prayer book of Jesus. It is the Old Testament book most often quoted in the New. The songs found in this book form the bedrock of both corporate worship and individual devotion.

Psalms in 30 Days is a PSALTER using the Christian Standard Bible as its basis. This one is not the Book of Common Prayer. But it is similarly inspired. It is too similar to be a coincidence in my opinion. That is neither good nor bad. It is also somewhat similar to BE THOU MY VISION and its follow up books.

Readers get a liturgical prayer book to follow for morning, noon, and evening for thirty days. This takes the Book of Common Prayer one step further. Since most Books of Common Prayer only have morning and evening liturgies. The 1979 has a midday prayer liturgy, however, the psalms remain the same for each day of the month.

This one does not stick exclusively to the Book of Common Prayer's confessions and canticles, if you will. It does expand beyond that for quotes and songs.

Morning prayers include
Call to prayer
Confession of faith
Canticle
Psalms
Gloria
The Lord's Prayer
Intercessions and personal requests
Prayer of the church (quotes)
Blessing

Midday prayers include
Call to prayer
Psalms
Gloria
Lord's Prayer
Blessing

Evening prayers include
Call to prayer
Confession of sin
Canticle
Psalms
Gloria
Lord's Prayer
Intercession and personal requests
Prayer of the church
Blessing

I followed the Book of Common Prayer for about two years. I've read through Be Thou My Vision two or three times. I've done this book once. I will say that while I do appreciate the liturgy and devotional practice it encourages, I am not that big a fan of the CSB. I think if this book utilized a translation of the Bible that I appreciated more, I would in turn like this book more. That being said, I have nothing against the CSB in general or people who use it as their primary translation. I do think that this book could be a great fit for others.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this. I originally planned to read it through once per quarter this year, but that didn't happen. It makes a great substitute for the Book of Common Prayer if you want to mix it up just a little bit. It pulls on some excellent resources that are also a good place to start researching Church Fathers and theology and historic prayer. A good intro to more liturgical prayer for those not from a liturgical tradition. It can get a little old praying The Lord's Prayer 3 times a day (or even just once a day) if you aren't used to that kind of repetetive prayer. Overall, this is a wonderful devotional resource to ads to your library.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really nice little book, beautifully bound. Nicely formatted to read through the Palms in thirty days--as the title says--or easily adaptable to other time spans. Also includes well selected additional Scripture, prayers, etc. I was not familiar with the CSB translation, but found it nice to read a fresh wording for familiar passages. I'll definitely find myself coming back to this book again and again.

[Jean Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This approach to praying the psalms was very helpful. I know some people don't like that the psalm aren't in order, but that isn't a problem to me. Each day is set up for prayer at morning, midday and evening; I read the ones for each day all at once. I hadn't thought you could actually do it in 30 days, but is doable and doesn't really take any more time than other methods of prayer.

[Chris Hilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has really helped structure my prayer life.
For over 2000 years God’s people have prayed the psalter and this is a great way to get caught up into these prayers, hear God speaking, and to meditate on other ancient prayers of the church.
I also have come to love the CSB bible translation, particularly for Hebrew poetry.

[John Yelverton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really great book which allows you to go through the Psalms not just as a devotional, but even as a form of family worship should you choose to use it in that way. My only complaint is that the CSB is such a different translation that it can be jarring to those who are familiar with the Psalms in the KJV and other similar translations.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay.

It was difficult for me to get use to the format of the book. The prayers and quotes were great. It bothered me that the Psalms were not in chronological order. I may try again to follow to the format at a later date.

[Jlnpeacock Peacock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent devotional help in that there is more reading material to aid in understanding and in providing additional insight for greater spiritual growth. There are brief readings for morning, noon, and evening.

[Dennis J. Waszak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very easy to follow daily prayer guide. Would like to have had shorter additional prayers (canticles, etc.) but otherwise was an excellent way to pray the Psalms.