Imagine for a moment that you suddenly discovered a copy of a prayer book that was used daily by Jesus, Mary, and most of the saints throughout history. What would you do? I suspect that many of us would begin praying the prayers it contained! We’d go to great lengths to incorporate those prayers into our own daily lives, so that we could become more like Jesus and his saints.

As it turns out, we do have such a prayer book: The 150 Psalms of the Bible have been prayed day in and day out by devout Jews for centuries, and they certainly would have been prayed by Jesus himself. From the earliest centuries of Christianity, therefore, the Church has had the practice of praying the Psalms in imitation of Jesus. Within a few centuries of the beginning of Christianity, priests and religious developed a weekly pattern of praying the Psalms that has come to be known as the Divine Office or the Liturgy of the Hours. Although the pattern of the Divine Office has developed and varied over the centuries, the Church has been praying the Psalms since her founding.

I highly recommend that Catholics consider praying the Liturgy of the Hours, especially Morning Prayer (Lauds) and Evening Prayer (Vespers) to learn to pray these inspired words of Scripture. You can read more about that in a previous article on this blog.

Even though I’ve been praying Lauds and Vespers from the Liturgy of the Hours for over fifteen years, I still feel like I have a lot to learn about this treasury of prayers. I recently decided to take up the task of memorizing a few of the Psalms using the texts from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles that will eventually be used in the Liturgy of the Hours, Second Edition.

As I’ve been trying to become more familiar with the Psalms, I’ve been thinking about how certain Psalms have been recited by priests and religious every single day for much of Christian history. If you’re looking for a list of Psalms to pray, to get to know, or even to memorize, here are six to consider. (You're free to pray whichever Psalms you want, of course.) Many, many Roman Catholic saints throughout the centuries would have known these Psalms by heart in Latin, and many priests and religious today know them very well in their own languages.

Psalm 95(94)*

Prayed daily in the traditional Roman Divine Office, Benedictine Office, and Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary; most common daily invitatory Psalm in the Liturgy of the Hours

¹ Come, let us ring out our joy to the LORD;
hail the rock who saves us.
² Let us come into his presence, giving thanks;
let us hail him with a song of praise.

³ A mighty God is the LORD,
a great king above all gods.
⁴ In his hands are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his.
⁵ To him belongs the sea, for he made it,
and the dry land that he shaped by his hand.

⁶ O come; let us bow and bend low.
Let us kneel before the Lord who made us,
⁷ for he is our God, and we the people,
the people of his pasture, the flock of his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice!
⁸ “Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the desert
⁹ when your forebears put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they saw my work.

¹⁰ For forty years I abhorred that generation,
and I said, ‘Their heart goes astray;
this people does not know my ways.’
¹¹ Then I took an oath in my anger,
‘Never shall they enter my rest.’”

Psalm 63(62):2-9

Prayed daily during Lauds in the traditional Roman Divine Office; prayed on Sunday, Week One during Morning Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours

² O God, you are my God; at dawn I seek you;
for you my soul is thirsting.
For you my flesh is pining,
like a dry, weary land without water.
³ I have come before you in the sanctuary,
to behold your strength and your glory.

⁴ Your loving mercy is better than life;
my lips will speak your praise.
⁵ I will bless you all my life;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
⁶ My soul shall be filled as with a banquet;
with joyful lips, my mouth shall praise you.

⁷ When I remember you upon my bed,
I muse on you through the watches of the night.
⁸ For you have been my strength;
in the shadow of your wings I rejoice.
⁹ My soul clings fast to you;
your right hand upholds me.

Psalm 67(66)

Prayed daily during Lauds in the traditional Roman Divine Office; optional daily invitatory Psalm in the Liturgy of the Hours

² May God be gracious and bless us
and let his face shed its light upon us.
³ So will your ways be known upon earth
and all nations learn your salvation.

⁴ Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.

⁵ Let the nations be glad and shout for joy;
with uprightness you rule the peoples,
you guide the nations on earth.

⁶ Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.

⁷ The earth has yielded its fruit
for God, our God, has blessed us.
⁸ May God still give us his blessing
that all the ends of the earth may revere him.

Psalm 51(50)

Prayed daily during Lauds in the traditional Roman Divine Office and Benedictine Office; prayed every Friday in the Liturgy of the Hours

³ Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your merciful love;
according to your great compassion,
blot out my transgressions.
⁴ Wash me completely from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.

⁵ My transgressions, truly I know them;
my sin is always before me.
⁶ Against you, you alone, have I sinned;
what is evil in your sight I have done.
So you are just in your sentence,
without reproach in your judgment.

⁷ Behold, in guilt I was born,
a sinner when my mother conceived me.
⁸ Behold, you delight in sincerity of heart;
in secret you teach me wisdom.
⁹ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be pure;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

¹⁰ Let me hear rejoicing and gladness,
that the bones you have crushed may exult.
¹¹ Turn away your face from my sins,
and blot out all my guilt.

¹² Create a pure heart for me, O God;
renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹³ Do not cast me away from your presence;
take not your holy spirit from me.

¹⁴ Restore in me the joy of your salvation;
sustain in me a willing spirit.
¹⁵ I will teach transgressors your ways,
that sinners may return to you.

¹⁶ Rescue me from bloodshed, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and then my tongue shall ring out your justice.
¹⁷ O Lord, open my lips
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

¹⁸ For in sacrifice you take no delight;
burnt offering from me would not please you.
¹⁹ My sacrifice to God, a broken spirit:
a broken and humbled heart,
you will not spurn, O God.

²⁰ In your good pleasure, show favor to Zion;
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
²¹ Then you will delight in right sacrifice,
burnt offerings wholly consumed.
Then you will be offered young bulls on your altar.

Psalm 149

Prayed daily during Lauds in the traditional Roman Divine Office, Benedictine Office, and Little Office of Our Lady of Mount Carmel; prayed on Sunday, Week One during Morning Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours

¹ Alleluia!

Sing a new song to the LORD,
his praise in the assembly of the faithful.
² Let Israel rejoice in its Maker;
let Zion’s children exult in their king.
³ Let them praise his name with dancing,
and make music with timbrel and harp.

⁴ For the LORD takes delight in his people;
he adorns the poor with salvation.
⁵ Let the faithful exult in glory,
and rejoice as they take their rest.
⁶ Let the praise of God be in their mouths
and a two-edged sword in their hand,

⁷ to deal out vengeance to the nations
and punishment upon the peoples;
⁸ to bind their kings in chains
and their nobles in fetters of iron;
⁹ to carry out the judgment decreed.
This is an honor for all his faithful.

Alleluia!

Psalm 91(90)