God wants to train us in the school of prayer and for this effect has given us this beautiful gift right in the middle of the Scriptures: the Book of Psalms. The Psalms are the book of prayer of the Hebrew people, and they were also adopted by the Christian Church who sees in them a prophetic exaltation of Jesus the Messiah.
We may ask, are the Psalms prayers or hymns? The answer of course is yes to both, as these prayers can be chanted, sung, or spoken. We all have observed how children learn to speak by imitating their parents and their siblings. Likewise, the Psalms are words that God gives to us so that we can speak them back to him. They are our training prayers for the healing for our souls.
Carlos Colón 