A Page with a Psalm
A Jewish man asked me to bless his father with a complete recovery. I asked whether his father was a believing Jew, to which he answered in the affirmative. “If so,” I continued, “Let him recite chapter such-and-such in Tehillim.”
A short while later, the sick man passed away. None of his family was there at the time of his death. When the hospital staff realized he had died, they followed the hospital policy and placed his body in the morgue.
When the son came to visit his father, he was aghast at finding his bed empty. He rushed to the nurses to ask where to where his father was relocated. They solemnly broke the news that his dear father had departed from this world, and his body lay in the morgue.
The son found his father’s body in the morgue, holding a piece of paper. On it was written the chapter of Tehillim which he had been instructed to recite.
How awesome is the power of faith! In the final moments of this patient’s life, as he was breathing his last, alone and apart from the rest of the world, he had only this chapter of Tehillim and his closeness to Hashem to escort his expiring neshamah from this world to the world which is completely good.
