"O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him."
Psalm 34:8 · King James Bible
What it is
The Psalms are the songbook of the people of God — one hundred and fifty prayers and hymns, gathered over almost a thousand years. David wrote seventy-three of them. Asaph wrote twelve. The sons of Korah wrote eleven. Solomon, Moses, Ethan, and Heman wrote a few more. Many are anonymous. Christian households have prayed them at morning and evening for two thousand years.
How the book is arranged
The Psalter is divided into five books, each ending with a doxology (Psalm 41, 72, 89, 106, 150). The five books mirror the five books of Moses. Book I (1–41) is mostly David's; Book V (107–150) closes with the great hymns of praise. Psalm 150, the last, is nothing but praise from beginning to end.
What kind of psalms are in it
There are psalms of praise (100, 103, 145–150); psalms of lament and complaint (13, 22, 42, 88); psalms of trust (23, 27, 46, 91); psalms of thanksgiving (30, 34, 116); royal psalms (2, 45, 110); wisdom psalms (1, 37, 73, 119); psalms of the ascent, sung by pilgrims going up to Jerusalem (120–134). If you have ever felt it, there is a psalm for it.
How to pray them as a household
One old rhythm is to read a psalm at breakfast and a psalm at bedtime. Another is the lectio continua: read straight through, one psalm a day, five days a week — the whole Psalter in about seven months. Or take the monthly rhythm of the Anglican prayer book: five psalms in the morning, five in the evening, and the whole Psalter is prayed every thirty days.
The essential twelve
If your household can only learn twelve, learn these: Psalm 1 · 8 · 23 · 27 · 34 · 42 · 46 · 51 · 63 · 91 · 103 · 121. They will be enough to carry you through every season of a life.
What Christ said about them
After the resurrection, Jesus told his disciples, "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me" (Luke 24:44). The Psalms are Christ's prayer-book too. When you pray them, you pray with him.