When you think of the books to suggest to those beginning to read their Bibles independently, Psalms may not immediately come to mind. We tend to think of the book of Psalms as a book of poetry and young people are notorious for disliking poetry. If we present it to kids and teens for the purposes it was originally intended though, I think they will find it is one of their favorite books.
Jews in the time of Jesus were passionate about Psalms. Their daily lives were covered by the Psalms. Daily Temple worship began with a different Psalm read on every day of the week. Psalms were used as songs and prayers. Almost any problem someone had would result in praying to God one of the Psalms. In fact it is believed, many observant Jews had memorized many if not all of them.
I know I shouldn’t have favorites, but if I had to pick my favorite books of the Bible, James would definitely make the list. Written by James, the brother of Jesus, the Book of James is one of the most easy to understand, practical books in the Bible. Because of that, it is one of the books I suggest kids and teens just beginning to read their Bible independently tackle first.
People often ask the best way to encourage their children to begin reading the Bible independently. The first thing to do is to make sure your child has a Bible that is accurate, but still easy to understand. The best one I have found so far is the NIrV version. It’s written on a third grade reading level, but is a translation and not a paraphrase (which can be very inaccurate in my opinion). Until recently, it only came in covers appropriate for young children, but I noticed the last time I was in the bookstore it now comes in covers for adults and even has a student study version.
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