Psalm 6 Sunday School Lesson for Kids

This is lesson 6 of 33 in a series of lessons called ““Praise God Through the Psalms.”

Lesson focus: Through the book of Psalms and the worship of the people of Israel, we get a glimpse into the character of God and how we should rightly respond to Him in worship. In Psalm 6 we see we see the anger and just wrath of God on sin. We also see the psalmist, David, crying out to God to not discipline him in anger. David knows that he deserves discipline and that God is just and righteous, but David also knows that God is merciful and in His mercy He will save His people from His wrath.

Passage: Psalm 6
Target Audience: Kindergarten-4th Grade (can be adapted for older or younger children)
Teaching Time: 45 minutes – 1 hour
Materials Needed: blank paper, markers/ pencils
Optional Materials: if you want to be able to send the kids home with something each week, you can print the text of the Psalm on one side of a piece of paper and on the back print “I should praise God because He is ____________” (leave the rest of the page blank for drawing.

Early Arriver/ Opening 10 minutes- have a few board games out and play with kids as they arrive. Don’t underestimate the conversations that happen while playing “Jenga” or “Uno” with a group of kids.

Intro. – – “Punishment Stories” – Ask kids to each share the worst punishment that they ever received…. What they did wrong and what the punishment was. Be prepared to share your own story of punishment, especially if you have one that was really over the top, but from which you learned your lesson.

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Read the Text. . .Psalm 6 ….

• • 1. Have one of the kids in the group read Psalm 6, or have the whole group read it from their handout. As you go through the Psalm, have kids listen for 2 truths about God in this Psalm…. (1) God hears His people and (2) God protects His people. Have them make a hand motion for each of the truths they hear about who God is and what He is like.

• • 1. As you go through the Psalm, have a signal for the kids in the group to make (like a time-out signal- – a T with your hands) every time they hear another truth about who God is and/ what God is like. Each time you take a time-out, briefly talk about that characteristic of God
       

• 1. Discuss the Passage–  Talk about the word discipline– – Discuss and define the word discipline. Write the word “discipline” on a piece of paper and around the word write some things that kids think of when they hear the word. Talk about how discipline can be equated with punishment…..you got out of bed to play after your dad warned you 3 times, so he disciplined you with a spanking…..and that the word can be equated with training…..he is so disciplined that he gets up at 4 am every morning for a 5K jog before reading his Bible for an hour. Explain that even though it doesn’t seem like it that being disciplined for something you do wrong and disciplining yourself to do something good are both about training. Explain that parents and teachers and others give rules that are designed to help you grow into a better person (and usually to keep you safe while you’re doing it)…. Your parents set a bed time and punish you when you sneak out of bed to play because they know that you need sleep to grow and that without sleep you won’t be able to concentrate in school.Explain that in this Psalm, David asks God to not discipline in His anger. David knows that He deserves God’s anger and deserves punishment for His sin, but He cries out to God for mercy. Elsewhere in the Bible (Hebrews 12:6) we read that God disciplines and punishes those He loves.

• 1. Cross Connection– – in verse 1, David asks God not to discipline him or rebuke him in His anger, but instead cries out to God for mercy. David know that He deserves death for His sin (Romans 6:23), as all of us do…. But if we keep reading in Romans 6:23 we see that instead of giving us what we deserve, God sent Jesus to take the punishment that we all deserve so that whoever repents and believes in Him will not die, but will be forgiven and have eternal life (John 3:16). Also point the kids in the group to verse 4 where David asks to be delivered and help the kids to see that ultimate deliverance comes from Jesus and that God delivers His people out of love (1 John 3:16 & 4:8-10)

Worship Time- After discussing the passage, distribute the paper and markers or pages printed with the text for the week. Explain that each week you want them to do three things in response to the Psalm…

1. 1. write a verse from the passage that they want to remember

1. 1. write a reason to praise God that they see in the Psalm

1. draw of something from the passage that they think is important.
   

Give kids time to work on their pages and then have them share what they have drawn or written with the rest of the group.

Prayer- Ask the kids in the group to share the truths that they see about God from this passage…the things they drew on their praise shields, the things they drew or wrote on their pages, etc.
Sing “Praise Him Praise Him all you little children…God is…” including the truths that they saw in Psalm 6. Close the prayer time by praising God for the truths that you see about Him in this Psalm and praying for the kids in the group that they would really get to know the character of God through this study this year.

Extra Time – Play a Bible Book game called “Roll the Dice.” For this game you’ll take turns rolling the large dice and naming as many books of the Bible as the number that comes up on the dice. Ways to make the game more challenging… (1) have kids name books in order, (2) write down the books that are named and don’t let those books be named a 2^nd time until all other books have been named, or (3) if they roll and odd number they have to name OT books and if they roll an even number they have to name NT books.