Samuel Chiel - The Healing Power of Psalms: Renewal, Hope and Acceptance from the Worlds Most Beloved Ancient Verses

I loved this beautiful, healing book. It has the perfect words and tone for people faced with grief, fear, illness, pain and suffering.

Belleruth Naparstek, LISW,
creator of Health Journeys

[The Healing Power of Psalms] is one of the finest books on prayer I know. It will help anyone connect with the Divine. If you are seeking greater strength, wisdom, or fulfillment in your life, this book will help you find it.

Larry Dossey,MD, author of Healing Words
and Reinventing Medicine

Balm for an aching heart: Chiel and Dreher have further enriched the ancient wisdom of the Psalms with their current and compassionate commentary. It is especially consoling for those who are facing serious illness or loss. Pick up this book every time your heart needs comfort.

Megory Anderson,
author of Sacred Dying

[The Healing Power of Psalms] makes the spiritual wisdom of the ages accessible to people who need a resource when they may be sick, or for the wise before they get sick. [The HealingPower of Psalms] does not just informit educates us about life, health, and spirit.

Bernie Siegel, MD, author of Love, Medicine,
and Miracles and Prescriptions for Living

People often overlook how words can heal, but The HealingPower of Psalms reminds us that comfort and hope are just a page away. The psalms that Chiel and Dreher chose for this joyful book focus on healing, coping, acceptance, and recoveryleading us all to green pastures. I recommend this book for anyone who needs divine assistance with the human condition.

Mary Polce-Lynch, PhD,
author of Nothing Left Unsaid

[C]onvinced that the human being is an inseparable combination of body and soul, and that therefore the health of the body depends in part on the health of the soul, [Rabbi Chiel] opens the treasure house of the Psalms and makes its insights available.

Rabbi Jack Riemer,
coeditor of So That Your Values Live On
and chairman of the National Rabbinic Network

The Book of Psalms is a cherished collection of prayers loved by Jews and Christians alike. The wisdom, inspiration, and guidance provided through its themes of mercy and compassion can have a dramatic healing effect. Rabbi Samuel Chiel and coauthor Henry Dreher have selected Psalms that can evoke hope in the reader. Each Psalm is followed by an illuminating interpretation by Rabbi Chiel that helps the reader to focus on the messages of renewal, recovery, and acceptance.

Spiritual Life

THE HEALING POWER OF
PSALMS

RENEWAL, HOPE AND ACCEPTANCE FROM THE WORLD'S MOST BELOVED ANCIENT VERSES

SAMUEL CHIEL
HENRY DREHER

Marlowe & Company
New York

THE HEALING POWER OF PSALMS

RENEWAL, HOPE AND ACCEPTANCE FROM THE WORLD'S MOST BELOVED ANCIENT VERSES

Copyright 2000, 2007 and Henry Dreher

Published by
Marlowe & Company
An Imprint of Avalon Publishing Group, Incorporated
245 West 17th Street 11th Floor
New York, NY 10011-5300

Originally published in hardcover in 2000 by Rodale as For Thou Art With Me.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.

All Psalms except Psalm 23 reprinted from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures
1985 by the Jewish Publication Society. Used by permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chiel, Samuel.
[For Thou art with me]
The healing power of Psalms : renewal, hope, and acceptance from the world's most beloved ancient verses / Samuel Chiel and Henry Dreher. -- 1st pbk. ed.
p. cm.
Originally published: For Thou art with me. Emmaus, Pa. : Daybreak ; [S.l.]
: Distributed to the book trade by St. Martin's Press, c2000.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60094-040-8 (trade paper)
ISBN-10: 1-60094-040-4 (trade paper)
1. Bible. O.T. Psalms--Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Spiritual healing.
3. Healing--Religious aspects--Judaism. I. Dreher, Henry. II. Title.
BS1430.6.H39C45 2007
223'.206--dc22

2007018075

eBOOK ISBN: 9780786743957

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America

To the memory of

Rabbi Arthur A. Chiel

Dr. Bernard Eisenberg

Malka Levine

The righteous are called living, even after death.

The Talmud

AUTHORS NOTE

A lthough The Healing Power of Psalms is a collaborative effort by Samuel Chiel and Henry Dreher, for the sake of clarity and simplicity we decided to use the pronoun I throughout, for Samuel Chiel, particularly because many of the stories in the book are derived from Rabbi Chiels experiences with members of his congregation and others.

The Healing Power of Psalms includes commentaries on 15 Psalms, a few of which are presented in their entirety. Most, however, have been excerpted to include verses that relate to issues of healing, recovery, and faith in God in the midst of crisis.We did not include verses that we believed would be inappropriate for people or their loved ones who are dealing with severe illness.

Youll also notice that the phrasing of certain lines differs when were discussing the Psalms. Thats because we used the traditional or familiar wording when we felt it better explained the essence of our discussion.

For those wishing to read the full text of these and other Psalms, we relied upon translations from Tanakh: The HolyScriptures (Jewish Publication Society, 1985), though, of course, you may seek out any one of the vast variety of fine translations.

PREFACE

M y coauthor and I wrote The Healing Power of Psalms to offer psychological aid and spiritual comfort to people with any kind of illness, and their families. Since writing the book with Henry Dreher, one of the most gratifying experiences I have had is the remarkable response it has elicited from so many readers. I have received numerous letters, e-mails, phone calls, and have had many personal conversations with people who have found the book helpful and inspiring at a time when they were facing the most daunting health crises of their lives.

These readers have been Jews, Christians, and even secular people who have suffered from serious disease or bereavement, or whose loved ones have faced these trials. They wanted to express their gratitude to me for writing this book, as it had given them strength and solace at the nadir of their suffering, and because it had made accessible to them the gift of the Psalms, with their healing wisdom.

Some of the letters came from members of my congregation, but especially gratifying were letters that came from readers I had never met. Ive saved every one of these written communications, and I treasure them, for their responses are exactly what I had hoped our readers would experience when I first conceived of this book.

A middle-aged woman, Martha, wrote this in her letter: