Prayer for Good Test Results

When the Waiting Is the Hardest Part

You are waiting for results. Maybe the doctor said a few days, maybe a week. The clock moves differently now. Every time the phone buzzes, your stomach drops. You try to go about your day, but the waiting sits on your chest like a stone.

You are not alone in this. Dovid HaMelech, writing b’ruach hakodesh, gave voice to a truth that reaches into the deepest place of uncertainty a person can stand. Kapitel 138 of Tehillim was composed not as a man’s private worry, but as a tefillah that would carry every Yid who would ever wait for an answer that had not yet come. And the words he chose hold something that a person waiting for test results needs to hear: Hashem yigmoir ba’adi, Hashem will complete His purpose for me.

This is a prayer for good test results, written for the space between the question and the answer. Dovid does not pretend the fear is not real. He walks straight through it, and he takes Hashem with him.

Before You Say This Kapitel

Before you read the words of Tehillim, take a quiet moment. Close your eyes if you can. Let everything else fall away. The schedule, the noise, the “what ifs.” Just you and Hashem. He already knows what the results say. Speak to Him from that place:

Master of the Universe, You know what is written in the results before the doctor reads them. I wait in fear — please, fulfill Your purpose for me. Hashem will fulfill His purpose for me — Your lovingkindness endures forever, do not forsake the work of Your hands. 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 You fulfill Your purpose for me for good. Ribbono Shel Olam, I care for Your children — please care for me.

Kapitel 138: The Full Prayer

Remove the specific claim ‘one of the last kapitlach Dovid composed’ or source it to Midrash Tehillim or Rashi on 138. It reads like the tefillah of someone who has already been through the fire and come out on the other side. “On the day I called, You answered me.” Dovid says this not as a theory, but as lived experience. That is the emunah he is handing to us: Hashem answered before, and He will answer again.

What These Words Mean for You

Hashem yigmoir ba’adi “Hashem will fulfill His purpose for me.”

This is the heart of the kapitel. Yigmoir. To complete. To bring to a finish.

A careful source-based way to say this is: the verse expresses Dovid’s trust that Hashem does not leave His work unfinished. Radak reads this verse in the direction of Hashem bringing His kindness to completion, not abandoning the one He has begun helping. Even when the process feels frightening, the verse itself pairs yigmor ba’adi with chasdecha l’olam. The completion Dovid speaks of is not cold or mechanical. It is bound up with Hashem’s enduring chesed. You are waiting for results that feel like they hold your future. Dovid is reminding you that whatever Hashem brings to completion in your life is not outside His care.

Chasd’cho l’oilom “Your lovingkindness endures forever.”

Chesed means lovingkindness. L’olam means forever.

Right now, waiting for results, forever may feel like a long time. But Dovid is reminding us of something steady in a moment that feels as if everything is shifting: Hashem’s chesed does not expire. It was there before the test, it is here during the waiting, and it will still be there after the results come.

Ma’asei yodecho al teref “Do not forsake the work of Your hands.”

Al teref means: do not let go, do not abandon.

Dovid closes the kapitel with a plea: You made me, Hashem. Do not let go of me. This is what a person waiting for medical results needs to say. I am not a chart, not a number, not a scan on a screen. I am the work of Your hands. Please do not abandon me.

B’kerev tzoro t’chayeini “In the midst of trouble, You preserve me.”

Dovid does not say “after the trouble.” He says b’kerev — in the middle of it. The waiting itself can feel like the tzarah.

The not knowing. The sleepless nights. The heaviness on the heart every time you remember. And Dovid says: even here, Hashem is sustaining you. Techayeni — You keep me alive, You give me life. Even in the thick of fear, Hashem is still holding you up.

How to Say This Prayer

There is no single right time to say a prayer for good test results. Some people say Kapitel 138 the moment they leave the doctor’s office. Others wait until the quiet hours of the night, when the house is still and the heart is open. Some say it every day until the results come back. Say it whenever the fear rises. That is your heart telling you it is time to daven. Many who carry this need also turn to a jewish prayer for mental healing for comfort.

You can say it sitting or standing, at home or in a waiting room. If the Hebrew feels difficult, use the transliteration or say it in English. Hashem hears every language. What matters is the kavanah behind the words.

Before you begin, set your heart. You might say quietly: “Hashem, I am waiting for these results and my heart is heavy with the unknown. You already know what the outcome is. Please let the results be good. And give me the strength to trust that whatever happens is part of Your loving plan. I place my health completely in Your hands.”

Tefillah and tzedakah have always gone together. Chazal teach (see Gemara) that tefillah opens the gates of Heaven, and tzedakah seals the decree for good. When you say Kapitel 138 and also give tzedakah in the zechus of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness, you are bringing your words and your deeds before Hashem together. After the kapitel, you may add: 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 was condemned by the Romans to a house of shame. There seemed to be no way out. Rabbi Meir confirmed her innocence, then approached the guard, teaching him to say “Elaha d’Meir aneni!” — “God of Meir, answer me!” — if he was ever in danger. When the guard asked for proof, Rabbi Meir said the words and nearby dogs that had been ready to attack turned away. The guard was convinced and released her.

Waiting for test results can feel like that. You are stuck between two walls, the test already taken and the answer not yet given, and there is nothing you can do to speed it up. Giving tzedakah in the zechus of Rabbi Meir is not davening to him. It is asking Hashem to hear your tefillah in the combined merit of this great tzaddik and your own act of chesed.

Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities was founded in 1799. The organization supports talmidei chachamim and families in need in Eretz Yisrael. The talmidei chachamim 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 Brachah for Good News

The weight of not knowing. The fear of what the results might say. That you turned to Hashem with it is already something beautiful.

May Hashem fulfill His purpose for you, and may that purpose be for good. May the results bring relief and not more worry. May the doctor’s words carry the news you have been davening for. And if the road ahead is longer than you hoped, may Hashem walk every step of it with you, giving you strength, clarity, and the deep knowledge that you are the work of His hands and He will never let go.

You can submit a prayer request to the scholars of Tiberias at no cost. They will daven for your healing 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 prayer.

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