What is the purpose of saying tehilim?

Couldn't one argue that that time/effort would be better spent with formal davening, visiting sick, etc.?

The Rambam certainly seemed to think so.

Ok, so there's basis for the question.

The question still remains: What is the purpose of saying tehilim?

Or, a variant: Why do people put so much effort into saying tehilim?

one doe snot preclude the other, Arizona, unless you only have a certain amount of time for this.

My day has 24 hours each consisting of 60 minutes. Everytime I do something, it means that I can't do something else.

yOU KNOW what I mean, Arizona. If you only have 15 minutes between putting the kids on the bus and running to work, you have a choice of what to do.

No, not sure I do know what you mean.

I have basically two types of unallotted time:

1. Little moments between things. Like your 15 min example.

2. Planned chunks of time that I've planned. An example would be right after my son's bedtime but before I start doing housework.


For either of these times of time, I can either pick up a sefer tehilim or I can do something else like daven, crochet a baby blanket, learn a classic mussar text, call my grandmother, do something sweet/romantic for my husband, etc.

but not make a hospital visit, right ?

Why couldn't I make a hospital visit during one of my planned empty spaces? For instance, maybe I could go on my lunch break.

And I think that's why reciting tehillim has become so popular: It's easy to do, and can be done on the fly.

But I think it loses it's purpose if it's just repeated by rote - as is any type of study or prayer.