What do you think?
Praying the Psalms: Growing Emotionally Closer to God and Those You Love
Praying the Psalms Will Draw You Closer to God
...and to the People in Your Life Your emotions are powerful. They can enrich your life and strengthen your relationships—especially with God. The writers of the Psalms knew this and were honest with God about whatever they were experiencing—love, anger, worship, loneliness, fear—and many other emotions. As they did this, they found joy in spite of struggles and turned their laments into praise. Above all, they drew closer to God.
Praying the Psalms will help you to do the same by giving you words to reflect the deepest cries of your soul. You'll discover that God delights in hearing your most honest prayers and uses them as the starting point for transformation. Learning to emotionally connect with God in greater intimacy will also lead to relational breakthroughs with others.
As you read and apply this book, you will If you desire to grow closer to God and others, praying the Psalms is a great place to start. You might even grow to understand yourself better in the process.
...and to the People in Your Life Your emotions are powerful. They can enrich your life and strengthen your relationships—especially with God. The writers of the Psalms knew this and were honest with God about whatever they were experiencing—love, anger, worship, loneliness, fear—and many other emotions. As they did this, they found joy in spite of struggles and turned their laments into praise. Above all, they drew closer to God.
Praying the Psalms will help you to do the same by giving you words to reflect the deepest cries of your soul. You'll discover that God delights in hearing your most honest prayers and uses them as the starting point for transformation. Learning to emotionally connect with God in greater intimacy will also lead to relational breakthroughs with others.
As you read and apply this book, you will If you desire to grow closer to God and others, praying the Psalms is a great place to start. You might even grow to understand yourself better in the process.
224 pages, Paperback
Published October 1, 2016
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 30, 2016
The Psalms propel us into the deepest questions about ourselves, about others, and about God. As we let them expose the depths of our emotion, they will lead us to the God who reveals Himself in the midst of our struggle.
The Psalms to me is the bible within the bible. It helps us to feel many emotions, articulate, and to focus what is the heart of God. It is historical, poetic and prophetic. It is for us to know God personally, to experience Him with our emotions, and to worship Him in spirit in truth. In this study, Stedman takes his readers through Psalms to teach how we can become engaged with the word of God. Each 7 chapters expresses our emotions with Psalms - first by reading a Psalm, reading the Psalm out loud with umph, then going back and highlighting/underlining key words so that we are not just reading the Psalms for the sake of reading but for worship. To help identify our emotions and the root of our emotions.
He starts with introducing Emotional intelligence, Emotional Connection and Emotional health. Each of these are drawn out of each chapter. Do we have these emotional components with our relationship with the Lord? With others? Each chapter breaks these out for you to reflect and to apply.
In identifying, we begin to learn our thoughts and emotions and to deal with them more practically. Not to be consumed but relate it to the truth of God's word. There is a balance that we must maintain.
Some of the quotes that I found encouraging.
Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.
The stupendous truth is that God is indeed moved by us, tiny humans that we are. He cares and is affected-literally by our emotions. The Scripture reveals God as an emotionally responsive being who grieves, rejoices, thirsts, and loves. Our emotions affect God.
Peace is not a matter of whom we become but whose we become.
The Psalms usually follow this pattern: anguish or questions first, then worship, thanksgiving and trust follow.
The Psalms demand that we recognize that praise does not spring from a delusion that things are better than they are, but rather from the human capacity for joy.
Psalms is so much more. It is the cry of the heart to know the One who creates and sustains. I encourage you to take in the words that can bring you into the presence of God.
A Special Thank You to Harvest House Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.
The Psalms to me is the bible within the bible. It helps us to feel many emotions, articulate, and to focus what is the heart of God. It is historical, poetic and prophetic. It is for us to know God personally, to experience Him with our emotions, and to worship Him in spirit in truth. In this study, Stedman takes his readers through Psalms to teach how we can become engaged with the word of God. Each 7 chapters expresses our emotions with Psalms - first by reading a Psalm, reading the Psalm out loud with umph, then going back and highlighting/underlining key words so that we are not just reading the Psalms for the sake of reading but for worship. To help identify our emotions and the root of our emotions.
He starts with introducing Emotional intelligence, Emotional Connection and Emotional health. Each of these are drawn out of each chapter. Do we have these emotional components with our relationship with the Lord? With others? Each chapter breaks these out for you to reflect and to apply.
In identifying, we begin to learn our thoughts and emotions and to deal with them more practically. Not to be consumed but relate it to the truth of God's word. There is a balance that we must maintain.
Some of the quotes that I found encouraging.
Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.
The stupendous truth is that God is indeed moved by us, tiny humans that we are. He cares and is affected-literally by our emotions. The Scripture reveals God as an emotionally responsive being who grieves, rejoices, thirsts, and loves. Our emotions affect God.
Peace is not a matter of whom we become but whose we become.
The Psalms usually follow this pattern: anguish or questions first, then worship, thanksgiving and trust follow.
The Psalms demand that we recognize that praise does not spring from a delusion that things are better than they are, but rather from the human capacity for joy.
Psalms is so much more. It is the cry of the heart to know the One who creates and sustains. I encourage you to take in the words that can bring you into the presence of God.
A Special Thank You to Harvest House Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.
October 29, 2016
Praying the Psalms
Growing Emotionally Closer to God and Those You Love
by Rick Stedman
Harvest House Publishers
Christian, Nonfiction (Adult)
Pub Date 01 Oct 2016
Praying the Psalms
Growing Emotionally Closer to God and Those You Love
by Rick Stedman
Harvest House Publishers
I am voluntarily reviewing a copy of Praying the Psalms through the publisher and Netgalley:
In Praying the Psalms we are reminded of the power of our emotions. The author points out that that our emotions can in fact serve to strengthen our relationship with the Lord.
Praying the Psalms would be great for a personal study on the Psalms, or for a group study.
I give Praying the Psalms five out of five stars
Happy Reading…
July 27, 2017
This was a great individual study for me, but could easily be done in a group study as well. It really discussed emotions and how we use those. Psalms is one of my favorite books of the Bible and I truly enjoyed this study.
**I received a copy from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a review**
**I received a copy from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a review**
May 13, 2025
This is a hard book to rate. I enjoyed what I read. But at times it seemed more a book on dealing primarily with emotions than one that went deep into praying the Psalms, although each chapter did touch on that. Perhaps a more accurate title would be: Growing in Emotional Health with Some Help from the Psalms.
April 21, 2022
I loved this book and the way he encouraged us to acknowledge our emotions based on the way David expressed his emotions in the Psalms. This is a model for us to express our emotions and connect better with God and others.
January 18, 2017
I was really curious to read a book on prayer. I’ve been asking a lot of questions about prayer of my church. You see, I was brought up in the Catholic tradition of praying on one’s knees, but, in more recent years, I have found myself, yes, praying in bed. It turns out, that’s not a bad thing. And there’s more than one way to “pray”, including by taking part in some of those labyrinth walks I’ve done this year. And it may just be that reading and reviewing theological books may be a form of prayer, too. Basically, anything that brings you in communion with God can be a prayer, even if that’s just sitting with the window open and listening to nature.
I was really doubly curious to read a book on the Psalms. The Psalms have always baffled me to their intent and purpose. I’ve also found them very hard to read because they can shift in tone on a dime. And some of the references in the Psalms clearly sail over my modern head. So, when this book came up on NetGalley, I flocked to it. I wanted to see what Rick Stedman, formerly the pastor of a megachurch that grew to 5,000 members (a number he recounts with pride in the book many times, if only to assuage himself of the inevitable church split that followed), had to say about it. I’m glad I picked this up. It was worth the read.
Praying the Psalms is a rather complex book and one hard to describe. It is part memoir. It is also part workbook to scribble in (which made it difficult to read on my Kindle at times). It is part theological study. It is also partially academic in tone, which may be the most surprising thing considering that it is a book devoted to religious readers. It meanders and ambles at times, and this was the least successful aspect of the book for me, but when Praying the Psalms is on point, it can be powerful in its revelations.
Read more here: https://medium.com/@zachary_houle/a-r...
I was really doubly curious to read a book on the Psalms. The Psalms have always baffled me to their intent and purpose. I’ve also found them very hard to read because they can shift in tone on a dime. And some of the references in the Psalms clearly sail over my modern head. So, when this book came up on NetGalley, I flocked to it. I wanted to see what Rick Stedman, formerly the pastor of a megachurch that grew to 5,000 members (a number he recounts with pride in the book many times, if only to assuage himself of the inevitable church split that followed), had to say about it. I’m glad I picked this up. It was worth the read.
Praying the Psalms is a rather complex book and one hard to describe. It is part memoir. It is also part workbook to scribble in (which made it difficult to read on my Kindle at times). It is part theological study. It is also partially academic in tone, which may be the most surprising thing considering that it is a book devoted to religious readers. It meanders and ambles at times, and this was the least successful aspect of the book for me, but when Praying the Psalms is on point, it can be powerful in its revelations.
Read more here: https://medium.com/@zachary_houle/a-r...
October 2, 2016
This book flows - easy to follow, but the whole book is opinions, just opinions of the author. He just gives us stories that could pertain to a few Psalms - not even the whole Psalms - and he even did not use them with the meaning it was intended for for some of them - now I am a pastors daughter and the two things my Father taught me was one - do not take someone's opinion as word - they need to back everything they say with Scripture and that Scripture needs to pertain to what they are speaking about - not just pick out a verse that says what they want - and you know that by reading the Scripture around the verse they give you and does it pertain to what they are saying - two - the Bible says that you are not to change add or delete ONE WORD of the Bible and this happens a lot - and this person does both of these - so I personally find it hard to read this book - but that is just me - you might find it very enjoyable - it is all up to what you believe - like I said it is very well written - easy to read - easy to understand. I received this book to read and give an honest review
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews