Prayer Before Medical Test

When the What-Ifs Won’t Stop

Waiting for a medical test can be a time of intense anxiety. The uncertainty of the outcome often leaves a person feeling helpless.

Saying this kapitel places the outcome directly into Hashem’s hands, recognizing that He is the true source of healing.

Kapitel 31 of Tehillim is a mizmor of Dovid HaMelech. In it, Dovid cries out from a place of deep distress — speaking of sorrow, enemies, and even “terror on every side” — while placing his trust entirely in Hashem. These 25 pesukim have long served as words of tefillah and chizuk for Yidden in vulnerable moments throughout galus. When you say this tefillah before receiving your results, you are following Dovid’s path: placing everything into the hands of the One who holds all outcomes.

Before You Say This Kapitel

We composed this personal prayer for someone sitting in the waiting room, when the future feels uncertain. Before saying the kapitel, you can say this personal tefillah:

Master of the Universe, into Your hand I commit my spirit, and now also the results. I go to the test and my heart pounds with fear. May it be Your will that the results be good, and if not, give me strength to accept and to cope. God of Meir, answer me.

If giving tzedakah, add:

In the merit of the tzedakah I give in the merit of Rabbi Meir, so may every harsh decree be turned to good. Ribbono Shel Olam, I care for Your children. Please care for me.

Kapitel 31: The Full Prayer

This kapitel speaks in the voice of Dovid in a time of danger, pursued by enemies and gripped by fear. Its words reach the place where a person feels forgotten, like a dead man out of mind, like an object given up for lost. From that place comes the line that later entered Jewish tefillah as words of trust: “B’yodcho afkid ruchi,” into Your hand I place my spirit. Generations of Yidden have said these words at moments when everything felt uncertain. You are saying them now, before your medical test, and Hashem hears you.

What These Words Mean for You

B’yodcho afkid ruchi “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit.”

This is passuk 6, and it is the heart of the whole kapitel. The verb afkid comes from the root פ-ק-ד, the same root as pikadon, something you hand over to a guardian for safekeeping. The

You are not throwing yourself into the unknown. You are placing your life, your health, your test results into the hands of the most trustworthy Guardian there is. Before your medical test, before you walk through that door, you say these words and mean them: my spirit is in Your hands, Hashem. Podiso oisi Hashem Eil emes “You have redeemed me, Hashem, Hashem of truth.”

Dovid does not say “You will redeem me.” He says podiso, “You have redeemed me” — past tense.

The Radak notes that Dovid uses the past tense פדית, ‘You have redeemed me,’ as a past in place of the future, expressing certainty in Hashem’s salvation as if it has already happened. Even before the results come back, even before the doctor says a word, something has already shifted. You have placed yourself in the hands of Hashem, the source of all emes, and emes does not leave you stranded. Choneini Hashem ki tzar li “Be gracious to me, Hashem, for I am in distress.”

The word tzar means distress; it also evokes the feeling of being pressed into a narrow place. That is exactly what the hours before a medical test can feel like.

Everything narrows down to one question, one result, one moment. Dovid does not hide his distress. He cries out from that narrow place, teaching us that we can turn to Hashem with our fears exactly as we experience them.

B’tzidkos’cho falt’eini “In Your righteousness, deliver me.”

Dovid asks for deliverance not because he deserves it, but because of Hashem’s righteousness. The word falt’eini means rescue me, let me escape.

It is the tefillah of someone who sees danger coming and calls out to the only One who can pull them free. Before your test, you are saying: Hashem, I do not come on my own merits. I come because You are righteous, and Your righteousness is my hope.

How to Say This Prayer

You can say Kapitel 31 anywhere. In the car on the way to the appointment. In the waiting room. Sitting on the edge of the bed the night before. There is no wrong time and no wrong place when your heart is full.

You can say it sitting or standing. If the Hebrew is difficult, say it in English or follow the transliteration.

Before you begin, take a moment to set your kavanah.

Tefillah and tzedakah work together. Seforim teach that tefillah and tzedakah are intertwined, opening the gates of Heaven together. When you say this kapitel and also give tzedakah in the zechus of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness, you are combining your davening with your ma’asim tovim.  You are asking Hashem to hear your tefillah in the zechus of this great tzaddik and your own chesed. After the kapitel, you may say: Elokah d’Meir aneni!

Give Tzedakah in the Zechus of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness

The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 18a-18b) tells how Bruria asked Rabbi Meir to rescue her sister, who had been condemned by the Romans to a house of shame. There seemed to be no way out. Rabbi Meir approached the guard with a bribe, teaching him to say “Elokah d’Meir aneni!” — “God of Meir, answer me!” — if he was ever in danger. When the guard asked for proof, Rabbi Meir threw a clod of earth at nearby man-eating dogs. They lunged to devour him, and he called out the words — the dogs turned away. The guard was convinced and released her, later using these powerful words to miraculously save his life. When we daven with these words, we are asking Hashem to answer our prayer in the merit of this great tzaddik and the miracles he merited.

This is the power behind the tefillah of “Elokah d’Meir aneni.” You are calling out to Hashem from a place of not-knowing, asking for good results, asking for deliverance. Giving tzedakah in the zechus of Rabbi Meir is asking Hashem to hear your cry in the combined merit of this great tzaddik and your own act of chesed.

Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities was founded in 1799. It supports talmidei chachamim and families in need in Eretz Yisrael. The talmidei chachamim at the kever of Rabbi Meir in Tiberias daven for those who reach out to them. When you give tzedakah for the poor of Eretz Yisrael in the zechus of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness, your chesed rises together with your tefillah.

Give Tzedakah in the Zechus of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness

A Prayer for Your Health

Turning to Hashem before a medical test is a profound act of emunah. The Ribbono Shel Olam hears every tefillah we say in our moments of distress.

May Hashem hold your spirit in His hands. May the results be good, and may the doctors find only health. If the road ahead is longer than you hoped, may He give you the strength to walk it and the people to walk it with you. May you feel His presence in the waiting room, in the exam, and in every moment after. And may you soon look back on this day and say, as Dovid said: “Boruch Hashem, ki hifli chasdo li”, blessed is Hashem who showed me wondrous kindness.

You can submit a prayer request to the talmidei chachamim at the kever of Rabbi Meir in Tiberias at no cost. They will daven for your health by name through Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities. And if you would like to give tzedakah in Rabbi Meir’s zechus as well, your kindness will rise together with your tefillah.

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