The Power of Tehillim: The 150 Psalms and the Return to YHWH
There is another ancient treasure that I believe believers in Yeshua need to rediscover: Tehillim, the Book of Psalms. In Hebrew, the Psalms are called Tehillim, תהילים, meaning “Praises.” These 150 Psalms are not simply beautiful religious poetry preserved in an ancient book. They became one of the great languages of Jewish prayer, accompanying the people of Israel through generations of joy, suffering, exile, persecution, repentance, thanksgiving, danger and deliverance.
There is almost no condition of the human soul that cannot be found somewhere within Tehillim. Fear is there. Grief is there. Anger, loneliness, injustice and persecution are there. There are cries for healing, protection and deliverance, prayers concerning enemies and danger, songs of thanksgiving and celebration, confession of sin, longing for Jerusalem, remembrance of Israel, wonder at creation and declarations of complete dependence upon YHWH. The Psalms do not present human beings as people who always have everything together. They present people who are afraid, wounded, confused, joyful, guilty, grateful and sometimes desperate, yet continually turning their attention back toward God.
That may be one of the greatest reasons Tehillim has remained so important within Judaism. When you do not know what to say to YHWH, the Psalms give you words. When your own prayer feels empty, you can enter words that have already carried generations through suffering and uncertainty. You can praise with David, cry from the depths, ask for mercy, remember the faithfulness of YHWH and declare trust even when circumstances have given you every reason to be afraid.
Tehillim and the Ancient Jewish Tradition of Segulot
Within Jewish tradition, Tehillim also became deeply associated with segulot, סגולות. A segulah in this context is a treasured spiritual practice traditionally associated with a particular blessing, protection, need or circumstance. Over generations, particular Psalms became associated with particular situations, while another widespread practice developed around reciting sections of Tehillim or even completing all 150 Psalms.
For generations, Jews have recited Tehillim during sickness, danger, war and personal crisis. Psalms are recited for children and families, for marriage, for protection, for mercy and deliverance, for parnassah, meaning livelihood or provision, and for the welfare of Israel and those facing danger. Tehillim may be recited beside someone who is sick, at gravesites of the righteous, during communal emergencies, or privately when a person simply needs to pour out his or her heart before YHWH.
But understanding segulah should never reduce Tehillim to a magical formula. The Psalms are not incantations by which human beings control YHWH. Their deepest significance is relational. They cause the person praying to remember who YHWH is, who we are before Him, what He has commanded, how desperately we need His mercy and where our help ultimately comes from.
That distinction is important because sometimes we become so focused on asking which Psalm is a segulah for a particular problem that we can miss the extraordinary spiritual treasure contained in all 150 Psalms together. The complete book takes a person through almost the entire landscape of human spiritual experience. You encounter suffering and deliverance, sin and forgiveness, fear and trust, judgment and mercy, lament and celebration, questions and answers, silence and praise.
Tehillim and Teshuvah
This leads directly to one of the most important concepts in biblical and Jewish spiritual life: teshuvah, תשובה. The word is commonly translated as “repentance,” but the Hebrew idea is richer. Teshuvah means a return. It is the turning of the person back toward YHWH after wandering away from Him.
That return appears throughout Tehillim. The Psalms force us to confront ourselves honestly. They do not teach us to approach YHWH by pretending that we are righteous when we are not. David can confess his sin and plead for a clean heart. Another Psalm can cry to YHWH from the depths. Another can ask God to examine the heart. Another remembers the failures of previous generations so that the next generation will not repeat them. Again and again, the human being is brought face to face with YHWH.
This is why regularly praying Tehillim can become much more than asking God for something. The words begin directing the heart toward Him. They remind us of His commandments, His mercy, His judgment, His covenant, His faithfulness and His holiness. They cause us to examine our actions, remember our dependence upon Him, confess what needs to be confessed and give thanks for what we have forgotten to appreciate. In this sense, Tehillim becomes a road of return.
Sometimes we may open Tehillim because we desperately need YHWH to change something around us. Yet somewhere during that process, we discover that YHWH is also changing something inside us. The person who began praying because he needed deliverance may find himself repenting. The person who began because she was afraid may begin learning trust. The person asking for provision may discover gratitude. The person asking YHWH to judge an enemy may suddenly find himself examining his own heart.
That is the movement of teshuvah. We return.
Why All 150 Psalms Matter
This is why I believe there is tremendous value not only in selecting a particular Psalm for a particular situation, but also in going through the entire Book of Tehillim. All 150 Psalms together create a spiritual journey that cannot be reduced to one subject. They take us through praise, lament, repentance, thanksgiving, suffering, hope, wisdom, Torah, kingship, Jerusalem, Israel, creation and the sovereignty of YHWH.
When you go through the entire book, you are not choosing only the words that make you comfortable. You encounter the whole range. You meet passages that encourage you and passages that challenge you. You encounter praise when you do not feel like praising, repentance when you would rather justify yourself, trust when you are frightened and thanksgiving when you have become preoccupied with what you do not possess.
That is why sometimes the question does not have to be, “Which Psalm should I pray?”
Sometimes the answer can simply be: begin with Psalm 1 and keep going.
Read Tehillim slowly. Read it aloud. Pray the words rather than racing through them. When something touches you, stop. When something exposes you, do not immediately move past it. When you encounter praise, praise. When you encounter confession, examine yourself. When you encounter thanksgiving, remember what YHWH has already done. When you encounter a cry for help that sounds exactly like your own life, allow those ancient words to become your prayer.
Tehillim Belongs in the Life of a Believer in Yeshua
For believers in Yeshua, none of this should feel foreign. The Psalms belong to the biblical world of Yeshua Himself. Yeshua quoted them, the apostles quoted them, and the New Testament repeatedly draws upon the Psalms when speaking about Messiah. The earliest Jewish followers of Yeshua did not live within a Christianity detached from Israel. The Scriptures, prayers and spiritual vocabulary of Israel formed the world in which they understood God.
When a believer in Yeshua opens Tehillim, therefore, he is not borrowing some strange religious practice from another faith. He is returning to one of the foundational prayer languages of the Scriptures. These are words that shaped Israel, words Yeshua knew, and words that have survived exile, persecution, war and suffering precisely because generation after generation continued to pray them.
Perhaps this is something modern believers desperately need. We continually search for new prayers, new methods, new spiritual techniques and new books explaining how to approach God. Meanwhile, one of the greatest collections of prayer ever given to humanity has been sitting inside our Bibles the entire time.
Perhaps This Is the Greatest Segulah
There are many fascinating Jewish traditions concerning the segulot associated with particular Psalms, and those traditions deserve to be explored. But I believe there is something even deeper when we look at Tehillim as a whole.
What happens to a human being who continually fills his mind, heart and mouth with these 150 Psalms? That person continually encounters YHWH. He remembers His faithfulness, confronts his own failures, asks for mercy, gives thanks, learns to trust, cries out in suffering, celebrates deliverance and repeatedly turns his attention away from himself and back toward the God of Israel.
Perhaps, then, one of the greatest mysteries of Tehillim is not simply what happens around us when we pray the Psalms. Perhaps it is what happens inside us.
We may begin Tehillim looking for a segulah, a blessing, an answer, protection, healing, provision or deliverance. Yet somewhere among those 150 Psalms, something greater can happen.
The person who came looking for something from YHWH can find himself returning to YHWH Himself.
And perhaps that is one of the greatest segulot of all: teshuvah, the return of the soul to its Creator.
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