One day while I was meditating on the message of Psalm 1 that those who follow God’s instructions will be blessed in ways that those who don’t miss out on, I started thinking about my own life and the lives of those I knew. I’d seen couples who made forgiving an essential part of marriage grow closer, while those who held grudges divorced. Friends committed to honesty matured spiritually, while those who hid sins behind lies stagnated. Teens who chose godly friends avoided trouble, but those who hung out with the wrong crowd went astray.

One thing in particular stood out: God had delivered me from the tongue of a slanderer, even though some believed her lies. I thought of the hurts, broken relationships, and lost ministry left in her wake.

Then I thought of other women who embraced truth and kindness. Everyone wanted to be their friends, including me. I felt uplifted when I talked to them, and I knew I could trust their every word because they were so cautious to speak truth. I wanted to emulate them.

I decided to write a psalm about what God says about this, using Psalm 1 as a guide. Psalm 1 is a Torah psalm, which is a psalm that proclaims the goodness of God’s instructions (Torah means “law” or “instructions”). It’s a type of wisdom psalm, which is a psalm that explains how to become wise. Here’s what I wrote:

A Wisdom Psalm by Jean E. Jones

A Psalm of Jean E. Jones

5 Reasons to Write a Wisdom Psalm

After writing this psalm, I realized more clearly why the psalmists wrote wisdom psalms, and in particular Torah psalms. These psalms

1. proclaim the wisdom of God’s commands;
2. teach others how following God’s instructions brings blessing;
3. encourage meditation on why God’s instructions make sense;
4. glorify God by proclaiming his goodness for making known how we should live; and
5. are an act of worship.

When I wrote the first draft of Discovering Hope in the Psalms, I included instructions for optionally writing a wisdom psalm. The women who timed the lessons for me all wrote one, which I’m including below. One of the women, Jean Strand, printed her psalm in a lovely script and framed it. Hanging it on the wall made it something to talk about with guests. She brought it to our summer Bible study last year and everyone asked for copies! They also pleaded for instructions so they could write their own wisdom psalms; I said they’d be in the book.

But as we were finishing up the book, Harvest House (my publisher) asked me to cut ten pages so they could keep the price point down. I decided to move the instructions from the book to here. I’ll provide a link to those instructions in a moment. (Update 9/12/2023: The instructions are now in the Bonus Bundles and Super Bonus Bundles for both Discovering Hope in the Psalms and Discovering Wisdom in Proverbs.)

But first, here are the wisdom psalms my friends wrote. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

A Wisdom Psalm by Jean Strand

A Psalm of Jean Strand

A Wisdom Psalm by Angie Wright

A Psalm of Angie Wright

A Wisdom Psalm by Virginia Thompson

A Psalm of Virginia Thompson

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So which of God’s commands amazes you as to how following it brings blessing? Download and print the instructions for How to Write a Wisdom Psalm and create your own this week! You can post them here or in the Facebook group, Discovering Hope in the Psalms. Enjoy!

• Download the Bonus Bundle for Discovering Hope in the Psalms
• Download the Bonus Bundle for Discovering Wisdom in Proverbs