One who sets out on a journey should make an effort to study a few chapters (mizmorim) of Tehillim with kavanah and submission.
Sources and Explanations
So the Chida brings in Birkei Yosef (siman 110, se’if 3) a tradition he received: that on every day that one sets out on a journey, he should study a few chapters of Tehillim with kavanah and submission, and it will be good for him. The Kaf HaChaim cites this (Kaf HaChaim 110:40). The Chida also writes in his book Moreh BaEtzba (ot 119) that every person should study a little Tehillim, and he did not make this dependent on setting out on a journey. It appears that reading Tehillim benefits a person both spiritually and physically, but the matter is especially important when he sets out on his way, since the Satan accuses on the road, as Rashi wrote on the pasuk (verse) (Bereishit 42:4): “But Binyamin, Yosef’s brother, Yaakov did not send with his brothers, for he said, lest harm befall him.” And in Rashi: “Lest harm befall him – and at home harm would not befall him? Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov said: From here we learn that the Satan accuses at a time of danger.”
Therefore, a person should see to it to read several pesukim (verses) of Tehillim every day, and especially when he is on the road, far from his home.
From the sefer “Shaf Veyativ – Laws of Saying Tehillim” by Rabbi Shay Tahan, Chapter 2: The Proper Times for Saying Tehillim, Halacha 7 (p. 20 in the print edition). Translated from the Hebrew original.
