Review: Psalms 365: Develop a Life of Worship and Prayer Volume 1

 

David Kitz. Psalms 365: Develop a Life of Worship and Prayer Volume 1.  Plymouth, MA: Elk Lake Publishing, Inc., December 2^nd, 2020.  262 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

Are you looking for a new devotional through the Psalms?  Bible dramatist, author, minister and blogger David Kitz has written the first installment of his 365 days devotionals on the Psalms.  This book goes up to Psalm 51.  After reading and using this devotional I hope there will be future volumes from the author and the publisher.

This book consists of a hundred twenty days’ worth of devotional reading.  I appreciate the format of this work.  With a title of what day it is of the reading (Day 1, Day 2, etc) there’s a thought-provoking title such as “Are you ready to be tested?” “Are you afraid of the dark?” and “Learning in the School of Hard Knocks.”  This is followed by “Today’s Reading” that tells us where to read from the Psalms and the key verse being quoted from the New International Version translation of the Bible.  Following this there’s three section with the devotional: Reflections which expound on the key verse and meditative thought and applications followed by “Response” that is a written short prayer and “Your Turn” which are closing application questions.

There’s a lot of good materials in this devotional.  The first days’ devotion already had me glued when David Kitz noted how there’a theme in the Bible from beginning to end being about “trees:” There’s the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil but also the tree of life in the first book of the Bible but laso how in the last chapter of the Bible in Revelation 22:1-5 we see the Tree of Life!  Of course in between there’s also the tree in Calvary, the cross and the author pointed out how the beauty of that tree, with the horrific event of the crucifixion of the Messiah, is beautiful because it is the work of our salvation by Jesus, who loved us enough to redeem us from hell!

I absolutely love Messianic prophecies and it’s joyful to see the author interpreted these passages as Messianic prophecies and pointed us to Jesus!  In particular I really the discussions on Psalms 22 and the book doesn’t cram that Psalm all in one day but spread it out for several days and key verses from that rich Psalm.  I love it!

Overall it’s the book’s practical bent in reading the Psalms to love Jesus that I appreciate the most and which makes it accessible for all as a devotional.  I enjoyed for instance Day 34’s look at Psalms 20:4 and the author asking if we pray for the success of others as an application.  Convicting and yet thoughtful of what loving others looks like.  There is a lot of moments of praising and adoring and thanking God reading this book and also it was hard not to put down (I “binged” read the first fifty pages in one sitting).  Anything that lead readers to think more about God biblically and also look at the Scriptures is worth purchasing!  I recommend this book.