Praying the Bible is modest and unassuming in appearance, and the short title is indicative of its style: it has no long explanatory subtitle, and the first two chapters are entitled “The Problem” and “The Solution.” Yet Donald Whitney’s simple presentation in no way minimizes the importance of prayer, its common difficulties, and a (quite literally) biblical solution. 

All Christians face mind-wandering and boredom in prayer, and the resulting lack of desire to pray bothers us, as it should. How can anyone be bored in conversation with the most awesome and interesting Person in the universe, who knows our lives intimately and has the answers to all our questions?  Whitney concludes that the fault lies in our method.  Praying about the “same old things” is not wrong; it is that “we say the same old things about the same old things.”  (The frequency of that phrase grows tiresome, but by the end of the book the reader grudgingly admires its effectiveness.)

Whitney’s solution is to pray through a portion of Scripture, especially the psalms.  He uses Psalm 23 to demonstrate how various phrases prompt prayers that are “fresh” and relevant to our situations.  This does not mean reading unrelated ideas into the text, but rather using the words to direct our thoughts toward God (the vehemence of his clarification suggests that the idea has come under fire).

Instead of picking a psalm at random, Whitney proposes scanning five psalms daily and choosing one to pray thoroughly.  The consecutive arrangement of the Psalms is somewhat topical—he recommends reading the psalm number corresponding to the day of the month and then adding thirty for each of the next four psalms.  (For example, on the first of the month read Psalms 1, 31, 61, 91, and 121.  On the thirty-first of the month, read Psalm 119.)  He suggests the epistles as the next easiest to pray through, since “…virtually every line in a NT letter suggests something to pray about.”  (59)  Some portions of the Bible will be more difficult as prayer prompts.

The seventh chapter consists of two pages urging the reader to lay down the book, pick up the Bible, and practice what he has learned before continuing further.  Even dishonorable rushers-ahead will be convinced by the enthusiastic reports in the chapter that follows.

The book finishes by evaluating the prayer patterns of George Mueller, Jesus Himself, and the early-church believers pictured in Acts.  Mueller acknowledged much distraction in prayer before he began talking to God about what he had just read in the Bible; then he was astonished that he had not seen it sooner. (83)   Jesus’ prayers on the cross were of necessity brief.  His longest sentence quoted the first verse of Psalm 22, the clearest description of crucifixion in the Old Testament; and His last words were from Psalm 31.  In the powerful prayer meeting of Acts 4, the disciples included phrases from the psalms.

Given these examples, Whitney’s succinct conclusion is, “Why not you?”  An appendix provides a chart for praying the psalms and helpful advice on doing it with a group, from families to classes to entire congregations.  Definitely a thought-provoking, practical, and encouraging book!