Has your prayer life started to feel a little… drab?
If you’ve prayed for any length of time, you know the feeling. The same words. The same requests. A quiet sense that you’ve run dry. There’s a way to bring it back to life, and it’s older than any technique you’ll find in a book. It’s called Scripture praying – and it simply means weaving the words of the Bible itself into your prayers.
In this post, I want to show you how to pray Scripture, and then walk through it together using one of the greatest of all the Psalms: Psalm 1.
One quick word before we start. The goal here isn’t for you to pray exactly like me. It’s to get you into the habit of praying God’s own Word back to Him.
Why Pray God’s Own Words Back to Him?
You might wonder: if God already knows everything, why pray His words back to Him?
Here’s why it matters so much. Consider how God Himself esteems His Word. In Psalm 138:2, the psalmist says to God, “You have magnified Your word above all Your name.” Sit with that. God’s name is the most exalted thing there is – and yet He has lifted His Word up even alongside His own name. If God holds His Word in that high a place, then filling our prayers with it is one of the most powerful things we can do.
When you pray Scripture, you’re no longer limited to your own vocabulary, your own moods, or your own short list of requests. You’re praying God’s own thoughts back to Him. You’re praying His will. And a prayer life that runs on Scripture rarely runs dry.
A Walk Through Psalm 1
Let’s put it into practice. Here is Psalm 1:
“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away… For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” — Psalm 1
Notice what this psalm sets before us: two kinds of people, two very different paths, and two very different destinies. The righteous and the wicked. One delights in God’s Word; the other drifts into the counsel of those who scoff at it. One is rooted and fruitful; the other is blown away like chaff. (And though it says “the man,” this is just as true for women and young people – anyone who will live this way.)
And right at the heart of it is that word meditates. Here’s where we have to be careful, because our culture has hijacked that word.
When the world says “meditate,” it usually means emptying your mind. But the Hebrew word in Psalm 1 is hagah – and it means almost the opposite. Hagah is to mutter, to murmur, to ponder something over and over under your breath. It’s the picture of a person chewing on God’s Word, turning it over and over, savoring it. Biblical meditation isn’t emptying your mind. It’s filling it – with the Word of God, day and night.
That word blessed is rich, too. In Hebrew it’s ashre – almost an exclamation: “Oh, the happiness of the person who lives this way!” This is no grim, dutiful existence. It’s a deeply happy one.
So how do we take a psalm like this and turn it into prayer? Let me show you.
How to Pray Psalm 1
Here’s roughly what it sounded like when I prayed through Psalm 1 – not as a script to copy, but as a model to learn from:
Heavenly Father, what a psalm this is. You set two ways before us, and I want to walk the blessed one. Keep me from the counsel of those who don’t know You, from drifting into the place where scoffing at Your truth starts to feel normal. Instead, make my delight be in Your Word. Let me be someone who meditates on it – not emptying my mind, but filling it with Your truth, mulling it over throughout the day, day and night.
Make me like that tree, Lord – planted by streams of water, drawing life from You, fruitful in season. I don’t want a life that’s blown around like chaff. I want my life to count, for now and for eternity. Do this in me. And do it in my family, in my church, and in Your people everywhere – raise up men and women who take Your Word seriously and meditate on it day and night. We’ll be careful to give You the praise. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Do you see what happened there? I didn’t write that out ahead of time. I wasn’t trying to be impressive or hand you a formula. I simply took the words of the psalm and turned them into a conversation with God. The psalm supplied the content; I supplied the voice. That’s all Scripture praying is.
Your Turn
Here’s my encouragement to you: try it this week. You don’t need a seminary degree or a special method. Pick a psalm – Psalm 1 is a perfect place to start – read it slowly, and then pray it back to God, line by line, in your own words.
Do that, and watch what happens. The drabness lifts. Your prayers gain depth and direction. And little by little, you become like that tree by the water – rooted, nourished, fruitful – because you’re drawing from the deepest source there is.
The blessed life of Psalm 1 isn’t reserved for spiritual giants. It belongs to anyone who will delight in God’s Word and let it shape the way they pray. So don’t just read about Scripture praying – go and do it. Open to a psalm today and turn it into a prayer. Your time with the Lord will never be the same.
