Why is Tehillim so powerful?

shoshanim999

Mon, Jan 09 2017, 10:06 am

PinkFridge wrote:

It is not powerful in being a formula for requests to come true. It is powerful in tapping into a way to connect to the RBSh'O under all circumstances.

I hear you and I wish I had your attitude. The problem is that we all grew up saying tehilim when we had a specific request. Someone is sick- say tehilim. Someone needs a shidduch-say tehillim. Someone is is going thru a crisis-say tehilim. I realize that some people say tehilim just because, but most of us grew up with the understanding that if something bad is happening we should say tehilim so hashem should fix it. When there is a bad matziv going on in eretz yisroel chas v'shalom and tehilim groups are being organized, it's hard to argue that we are not asking for a specific request, that we should win and they should lose. When that starts to happen we stop saying tehilim at least with the same fervor and desperation. You can argue that we shouldn't stop saying tehilim, but since almost everyone uses tehilim as a request, we slow down or stop completely.

PinkFridge

Mon, Jan 09 2017, 10:18 am

shoshanim999 wrote:

Let me share some personal experience. It took me years to appreciate Tehillim again after my mother died. About 15 years ago at a local community gathering for some cholim someone spoke first, about the concept of unanswered tefillos. (Rabbi Nissel has a great shiur called Understanding Unanswered Prayers. I haven't yet heard but have heard it distilled.) The idea is that no tefilla goes unanswered. The theme was not that the sometimes the answer is no, but that no tefilla is every wasted. It creates energy and goes places we can't imagine. Maybe it helps that same choleh, who dies, to be more comfortable. Or maybe it creates some zechuyos for him to take with him. Maybe it won't help our kids but will help theirs. There are so many possibilities, and this made such an impact on me.

So as I heard Shira Smiles say on her parshas Vayechi shiur for this year, we can't function on a third grade level. We have to be more sophisticated. Of course whenever we need something we turn to Hashem and ask, but we have to treasure the connection.

And it's not just Tehillim. One of your examples is the matzav in E"Y. Surely you have the same kavanos while saying Shemone Esrei, so many of the brachos of which are tailor-made for these hopes. Do we give up on Shemone Esrei?

Iymnok

Mon, Jan 09 2017, 10:27 am

Dovid Hamelech wrote most of tehillim while in the most trying of circumstances. There is something there for most situations that we could connect to.
Your kid is off the derech? He had Avshalom trying to usurp his authority and get him killed.
Trouble with your in-laws? Shaul Hamelech gave him his daughter then chased him trying to kill him.
In every circumstance, he wrote tehillim from his pain. Even just saying the words connects to the power that Dovid Hamelech invested in it.

I wish I could relate to what I wrote. I believe it, it's just so hard to daven meaningfully.

zaq

Mon, Jan 09 2017, 2:23 pm

The power comes from the greatness of the man who wrote them. Because few of us have his poetry, his command of language, his connection to G-d or his depth of feeling, we use his words to generate depth of feeling and to express what we can't on our own. They are a vehicle for channeling our prayers, not a magical formula for getting what we want.

David was not only a poet but also a musician and composer. many Tehillim were written to be sung or accompanied by instrumental music . we can have no idea how sublime these chapters must have been when performed as intended.

blossoming

Mon, Jan 09 2017, 3:12 pm

Tehillim is very poweful, just as many wrote above, but it is not the only powerful thing one can do for a yeshua. Davening, even in your own words, visiting kivrei tzdikim, and extremely poweful - taking opon yourself a kabala - whether it's an act of chessed, limiting Loshon Hara or tzniyus, they all have a huge effect. Just make sure that whatever you do, to have in mind what your asking for while you do it. And little, specific steps is the key. When Hashem sees that we go out of our way and give up something for him, then he will do the same for us, whether it's Tehillim, or anything else.

seeker

Mon, Jan 09 2017, 3:14 pm

I feel like starting a spinoff on the chinuch issue here. It's bothered me for a long time but I feel powerless to change it. There is so much I like about the RW school system my kids are in but things like this bug me to no end. Especially since I was a poor reader in Hebrew as a kid and did not do well understanding the language either (though Tehillim language would be difficult for anyone, I think) so I really got to resent any extra rote recital. Having to daven every day was "bad" enough but I see the chinuch value in that. Mass tehillim recitals for children I don't get.

I remember once in high school there was something or other that they wanted us to "daven" for, they split up Tehillim - not by chapter but by bigger chunks. And someone came into the classroom and they were like here, you do this one, you do that one. After they left the classroom, you know how when there's an interruption everyone starts chatting anyway, so I said "This is really not fair. They can't make a commitment on my behalf to do this and then guilt me into breaking some chain if I don't." and to my surprise the teacher said "You're absolutely right." I think she even offered to say mine for me, but I felt so validated that by then I didn't even mind saying it so much. I just resented it being pushed on me for so many years. It was so freeing as a teenager to have a BY teacher validate that, like giving me permission to put that resentfulness to rest and move on with my own will.

shoshanim999

Mon, Jan 09 2017, 3:19 pm

blossoming wrote:

It's interesting that you are clearly on the "hashem is a vending machine" side of the argument. You say we should have in mind what we are asking him for when we daven and if we give something up, he is more likely to fulfill our request as we are showing we are not just taking. Like a vending machine. Nothing comes out unless I first put in a quarter. Did I understand you correctly?

blossoming

Mon, Jan 09 2017, 3:30 pm

shoshanim999 wrote:

you basically added another related point, which sounds real good. Hashem gave us nisyonos so that we should be connected to him, and give of ourselves. Besides for zchut avot and a few others - not everything comes on a silver platter in this world. Gifts don't always land on us from heaven, many times we need to work hard and ask for them, just like everything else in life.

mandksima

Mon, Jan 09 2017, 4:04 pm

They have a very strong power but you have to reach out of your own vision to understand how they work. I've heard so many stories lately of people finding out the true power of the words of tehillim and it's astounding.

One story was related by someone who had an out of body experience when almost dead as a result of a bad car accident and as she was flying out of her body into a light, she heard such beautiful music. It was nothing like she had ever heard before and she was strongly drawn to the origin of the sound. She followed the music to a car that was pulled over to the side of the road where a young woman was sitting in her car and reciting tehillim for the people involved in the accident that had just occurred. Her words of Tehillim were being translated into the next realm into such beautiful and powerful unworldy music. It was those tehillim that returned her soul into her body and she recovered. She remembered this upon waking and she located a person who could help her remember details about her vision through hypnosis. She was able to go back into her vision to see the license plate of the woman who sat and read the tehillim. She found someone to help her locate an address from the license plate and went to go visit. She had the door open by the same woman from her dream and was quite speechless. After a moment, she was able to tell this woman that it was because of her and her tehillim that she was alive today. Never underestimate these special words!

That was the way I heard the story but I found this published with a few changed details so maybe this version is more accurate : Amazing Power of Tehillim

Many tzaddikim have told us that if we would only begin to understand the power of the words of tehillim, we would never stop saying them!

I was told you don't have to understand all of the words in order to say tehillim, unlike tefilla. Just uttering the words have a power unparalleled in this world.

Here's a bunch of stories:Stories of Tehillim

PinkFridge

Mon, Jan 09 2017, 5:08 pm

shoshanim999 wrote:

That something will come out is not inevitable. However, if something is going to come out, we have to daven. We have to understand that while hishtadlus may be required of us, that's not what effects the yeshua.

amother

Honeydew

Mon, Jan 09 2017, 8:29 pm

shoshanim999 wrote:

Maybe organized, public tehillim is usually in response to a crisis of some sort but there are thousands who simply say tehillim each day to...say tehillim. Its a beautiful means of connection and emotional expression, not just supplication.

You just might not know about these people because they don't take out big ads, hold asifas or teleconferences, and in general, they keep their very personal relationship with Hashem completely private.

As it should be.

shoshanim999

Mon, Jan 09 2017, 9:03 pm

mandksima wrote:

This is a beautiful story. Truth is that it only reinforces the vending machine mentality. What makes this story special to me and Mitzadheini is the ending. The fact that the person was saved by the tehillim. I wish I could be on a level where I can appreciate tehillim just for the sake of the tehillim. Even when there is no obvious happy ending to the story. Especially since that is usually the case.

MitzadSheini

Mon, Jan 09 2017, 9:25 pm

No. Hashem is not a vending machine. The thing that makes it special for me is the reminder that

WE HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA OF THE POWER OF SOMETHING LIKE TEHILIM.

Even if we see NO RESULTS there is still value that we cannot know. I know this in theory but the story demonstrated it in practice. Not that someone was saved, but that the Tehilim created a music that cannot be heard in this world but has an effect in the next.

That's what prompted my "wow".