Did Yaakov recite Tehilim?
In Parshat Vayetze, Breisheet 31:38-40, Yaakov explains to Lavan:
These 20 years that I was with you, your ewes and she-goats never miscarried, and I did not eat any rams of your flocks. I never brought you a mutilated animal. I took the blame for it. You demanded compensation from my hand whether an animal was stolen from me by day or whether it was stolen from me by night. I was consumed by the burning heat by day and ice at night. My sleep was taken from my eyes.
Breisheet Raba 74:11describes what Yaakov chanted while he was guarding the flocks at night:
What did he recite?
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: The fifteen “Shir HaMaalot” (Songs of Ascents) contained in the Book of Tehillim (Psalms), as it says (Tehilim 124:1): “Shir HaMaalot L’David. Had God not been on our side- let Israel say it “Yomar na Yisrael”- this refers to the patriarch Israel (Yaakov).
Rav Shmuel bar Nachman said: Yaakov used to recite the entire book of Tehillim.
What is the proof?
Tehillim 22:4: “But You are the Holy One, enthroned on Yisrael’s prasises”, “Yoshev Tehillot Yisrael”- which means Israel (Yaakov) the patriarch.
King David composed the Book of Tehilim by taking Yaakov’s prayers that he recited at night when he was living with Lavan.
May we be saved from those who are out to get us and may we be inspired and comforted when reciting the words of the Psalms which are still so relevant today.