Tehillim · The book of Tehillim
What is a mizmor, and what is the book of Tehillim?
Tehillim (praises) is the book of Psalms, one hundred and fifty in all, and a mizmor is a single psalm within it. Many were composed by King David, and together they have become the prayer book of the Jewish heart.
One word, one book
The Hebrew word מִזְמוֹר (mizmor) means a song set to music, a poem sung. Each of the psalms is a mizmor. Gather all of them together and you have Tehillim (praises), the book of one hundred and fifty psalms. So the two words describe the same thing at two scales: one mizmor is one psalm; Tehillim is the whole book of them.
The prayer book of the heart
The primary source here is the book of Tehillim itself, the Psalms as they stand in the Tanakh. What sets it apart is its voice. Much of the Torah is Heaven speaking to us; Tehillim is us speaking back. Many of these psalms are ascribed to David, and they carry every note a human being can sound, gratitude, fear, longing, praise, even complaint. That is why, across the generations, Jews have reached for Tehillim in joy and in trouble alike. It is less a book you study than a book you say.
What to do
You do not need an occasion to open it. Choose a single mizmor, read it slowly in whatever language you understand, and let the words carry what is already in you. Over time you will find that certain psalms become yours. Starting with one is enough.
Source: The book of Tehillim (Psalms).
When a particular hour asks for words you do not yet have, let Kolí (the Tehillim for the moment you are living) place the right mizmor in your hands.
Open Kolí