Tehilim Perek 55B

Welcome to NachDaily, covering the entire TANACH one perek at a time. I’m Rabbi Shaya Sussman, and today we’ll be discussing Tehilim, Chapter 55. This is the second of two classes on the chapter and corresponds to Shmuel Beis, chapter 15. Check out the NachDaily archives for further info.

Just a quick recap: Dovid said this chapter after finding out that Achitophel, his most trusted adviser, was now aiding Avshalom in the rebellion. Dovid was distraught by this, and poured out his heart to God to be saved from the enemies who were trying to kill him.

The first class primarily discussed the background and summary of the perek. This class will focus on highlighting two great pessukim of Emunah

Verses 17 and 18 say:

אֲ֭נִי אֶל־אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֶקְרָ֑א וַ֝יהוָ֗ה יוֹשִׁיעֵֽנִי׃ עֶ֤רֶב וָבֹ֣קֶר וְ֭צָהֳרַיִם אָשִׂ֣יחָה וְאֶהֱמֶ֑ה וַיִּשְׁמַ֥ע קוֹלִֽי׃

As for me, I call out to the Lord, and God saves me. Evening, morning and noon, I express my grief and moan aloud, and He hears my voice.

Over and over again, we see how hard Dovid worked in the area of hisbodedus, in personal prayer. Constantly having private conversations between himself and the Creator, Dovid spoke to God all day long!

The Gemara in Brachos relates in the name of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai that it would be optimal for a person to daven all day long! There is no limit to how much a person can talk to God, speaking to Him as you would to a friend.

I once saw a story about Rav Avraham Steinherts, also known as the Chochav Lev, and this is said of other Tzaddikim as well. He was accustomed to have an ongoing conversation with Hashem throughout his entire day. He would speak to God before each thing he was about to do as his day progressed.

This may seem like an ordinary story, but it’s not so easy to do. Because the power of Tefilah is so high, the negative forces will do everything to distract us from doing it! They will even tell us, “Sure, you want to speak to God, but you can do it later in the day when you have more time.” Lo and behold, that time never happens, because we’ll find ourselves distracted once again.

Rav Tzvi Aryeh Rosenfeld, Zt”l, says that learning Torah is difficult because the yetzer hara will distract us. For this reason, raising money for a yeshiva or a building to support Torah will also be very hard. If we will do an hour a day of hisbodedus, personal prayer, we will find that we have time to both learn Torah and raise money and have time left for talking to Hashem!

When we try to talk to Hashem, we find ourselves totally distracted, hungry, tired, and with no motivation. We need to break through this, time and time again, paying no attention to the distractions that come our way, having firm resolve to set time aside everyday to speak with Hashem in our own words.

Similarly, among the first times that Reb Nosson met Rebbe Nachman, Rebbe Nachman noticed that Reb Nosson didn’t have any shoelaces on his shoes. Rebbe Nachman asked Reb Nosson why he didn’t pray for shoelaces. Reb Nosson stood there with a look of bewilderment on his face, as if he didn’t think he should bother God for his shoelaces. Rebbe Nachman told him that he should daven for even the shoelaces.

Nothing is too small or insignificant, no detail is too trivial to speak to Hashem about.

May we merit strengthening ourselves in personal prayer to speak to God about every detail of our lives. As Dovid says, Evening, morning and noon, I express my grief and moan aloud, and He hears my voice.

Thank you for listening and have a wonderful day.