Re:verse Game Planner November week 1. Praise and worship Psalm 34:1

Transcription

1 Re:verse Game Planner November week 1 Praise and worship Psalm 34:1

2 Nov week 1 Teaching a Bible verse through games THIS MONTH S TOPIC: Praise and worship Children will explore this topic by learning and understanding this month s Bible verse. THIS MONTH S VERSE: Psalm 34:1 I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise will always be in my mouth. Wycliffe Bible Copyright 2001 by Terence P. Noble. Week 1 objectives: To discover that this verse was written by David at a time when King Saul was trying to trap him, and to talk about what it means to praise someone. GAME: 7 mins Aims: To play a game that involves making a trap before talking about King Saul trying to trap David. You will need: lively music and the means to play it. Choose three children to make a trap. They will need to stand in a circle and join hands. They then raise their hands to form arches. When the music plays the remaining children run in and out of the circle, weaving through the arches. When the music stops the trap is shut and the children making the trap lower their hands to close the circle. Children trapped in the circle are out and join the ring to make the trap bigger. As the music restarts the children making the trap raise their hands and the remaining children weave in out again, trying not to get caught. TALK ABOUT: 6 mins You will need: A whiteboard or a large sheet of paper, marker pens and a Bible. Before the session write the verse on a whiteboard or a large sheet of paper. Circle the word 'Psalms' in the reference. Explain that this verse comes from the book of Psalms. There are 150 Psalms in the book. Write 150 on the white board. Psalms are songs or poems; they are either to God or about Him. They are in the Old Testament part of the Bible. Quickly show the children where the book of Psalms is in a Bible or ask a child to find it for you. Show the children how it is easy to find because it is roughly in the middle. See if anyone would like to have a go at finding it with their eyes closed. People who study the Bible think that King David wrote seventy-three of the psalms. Draw King David as a stick man with a crown on his head; write David underneath. The Bible tells us that David wrote Psalm 34. Circle number 34 in the reference. He wrote it before he was King. Rub out David s crown. At the time Saul was King of Israel. Draw another stick man with a crown and write Saul underneath. When David wrote this Psalm King Saul was very cross with him; he was trying to catch him. David was running away to a safe place. Copyright 2016

3 Nov week 1 He ran away to Philistia. He went to the city of Gath. Gath was where Goliath had come from. Briefly remind the children that David, as a boy, had killed the giant Goliath. But the King of Gath didn t want David to stay in his city so David ran away to a cave. While he was in the cave people began to join him; they made him their leader. Quickly explain that lots of the psalms are about praising God. Underline the word praise in the verse. Ask the children if they know what it means to praise someone. Talk about praise meaning telling someone they are great, telling someone you are pleased with them and/or thanking them for doing something wonderful. Give an example of how a teacher might praise someone for working hard or being kind give examples of things they might say such as: That was fantastic, I m so pleased with what you have done, thank you for doing that for me. Explain that when Christians praise God they thank Him for what He has done for them; they say: Thank you for what you have done for me, thank you that you love me I think you are fantastic. If you have time talk about the different things Christians thank God for. You might like to dig deeper (see Printables) and talk about the things we can see and the things we can t see. SONG: 2 mins To the tune of Puff the Magic Dragon. I will bless the Lord at all times his praise will always be, In my mouth and on my lips; I ll thank Him constantly. So if I m feeling lonely* or if I m feeling fine, I ll sing the psalm that David wrote, And praise God all the time I will bless the Lord at all times his praise will always be, In my mouth and on my lips; I ll thank Him constantly. *Ask the children to shout out other feelings such as sad, angry, tired, happy, hungry. Reminders... Copyright 2016

4 Printables 1. Topic overview 2. Dig deeper

5 1. Topic overview TOPIC OVERVIEW: Praise and worship THIS MONTH S VERSE: Psalm 34:1 I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise will always be in my mouth. Wycliffe Bible Copyright 2001 by Terence P. Noble. Week 1 Objectives: To discover that this verse was written by David at a time when King Saul was trying to trap him, and to talk about what it means to praise someone. Explain that this verse comes from the book of Psalms. There are 150 Psalms. Write 150 on the white board. Psalms are songs or poems; they are either to God or about Him. They are in the Old Testament part of the Bible. Quickly show the children where the book of Psalms is in a Bible or ask a child to find it for you. Show the children how it is easy to find because it is roughly in the middle. See if anyone would like to have a go at finding it with their eyes closed. People who study the Bible think that King David wrote seventy-three of the psalms. The Bible tells us that David wrote Psalm 34. Circle number 34 in the reference. He wrote it before he was King. At the time Saul was King of Israel. When David wrote this Psalm King Saul was very cross with him; he was trying to catch him. David was running away to a safe place. He ran away to Philistia. He went to the city of Gath. Gath was where Goliath had come from. But the King of Gath didn t want David to stay in his city so David ran away to a cave. While he was in the cave people began to join him; they made him their leader. Quickly explain that lots of the psalms are about praising God. Underline the word praise in the verse. Talk about praise meaning telling someone they are great, telling someone you are pleased with them and/or thanking them for doing something wonderful. Explain that when Christians praise God they thank Him for what He has done for them; they say: Thank you for what you have done for me, thank you that you love me I think you are fantastic. Week 2 Objectives: To familiarise the children with the idea of giving praise and to think about God deserving praise. Underline the word praise in the verse. Remind the children that praise means telling someone they are great, telling someone you are pleased with them and/or thanking them for doing something wonderful. Talk about times when people might be awarded a trophy. Talk about people deserving a medal or a trophy because of something great they have done. Explaining that giving somebody a trophy or a medal is another way of praising them it s a way of saying you re great, that s a wonderful thing you have done. Explain that Christians believe that God deserves praise because He is great and does great things. However Christians don t give God trophies or medals, they give Him praise through the things they say and sing. If you have time talk about singing praise to God; singing about the things God has done, thanking Him for them and telling Him He is great. You might like to play a praise song or talk about your favourite song. Finally talk about how things weren t going well for David when he wrote this Psalm, Saul was trying to catch him and the King of Gath didn t want him in his city. However David said he would still carry on praising God. David knew that when things were tough God was still good to him and deserved to be praised. Summarise by explaining that Christians believe even when things are tough God still deserves their praise. Continued on next page

6 1. Topic overview Week 3 Objectives: To discover what the word bless means and to think about David saying he would bless the Lord at all times. Circle the word bless. Ask the children if they have heard the word bless before ask them if they know what it means. Explain that if somebody is blessed they have lots of good things. Draw a big smiley face next to the word bless. The good things might not be stuff like toys and clothes; it could be things like feeling well, and good friendships. When God gives a person good things Christians say God has blessed them. We can bless other people by praying that God will give them good things too. But the Bible says we should bless God. How can we bless Him? Christians believe they bless God by giving Him good things their time, their attention, their love and their praise; they believe that these are all good things God loves to receive. In this Psalm David said he was going to bless God by giving Him praise. David said that he was going to bless God all the time. Underline this phrase in the verse. Week 4 Objectives: To play a game that will help the children memorise the verse and remind them that David said praise would always be in his mouth. David said that God s praise would continually be in his mouth. Underline this phrase in the verse. This was David s way of saying that he would always say thank you to God and always tell Him how great and wonderful He is. Christians believe that it is not only important that they feel thankful towards God but that they say thank you to Him as well. However the Bible teaches that both good things and bad things can come out of people s mouths: they can praise God with their mouths but they can also say unkind things. In this verse David was saying that He only wanted good and kind words to come out of his mouth; he wanted to praise God all the time. Christians believe that with God s help they too can learn and grow to say more and more good things; to say kind words and words of praise to God. Explain that this is the last week we will be looking at this verse from Psalm 34. Remind the children that David wrote this psalm and many others about praising God. If you have time explain that David loved to praise God because he knew that God deserved and loved his praise however David also knew that praise brought Him closer to God it brought him into God s presence. Explain that in God s presence David felt God s love, peace, joy and kindness in a wonderful way.

7 2. Dig deeper Dig Deeper Christians believe God has given us many, many, many good things. You might like to talk to the children about things God has given that we can see and things we can t see. 1. Things we can see. Name animals, flowers etc. from God s creation. With older children you might want to spend some time talking about how even the man-made things around us are made from natural material. You might also want to talk about our friends when you talk about the things God has given us that we can see. 2. Things we can t see. List things such as: love, hope, peace, joy, kindness etc. Talk about how Christians believe God gives people these things in different ways He might help somebody to feel joyful or fill them with His peace when they are feeling worried or scared. The Bible teaches that He also works through good friendships; a friend might be kind, or help a person to feel peaceful or happy. Remind the children that Christians believe it is God s plan that we have good friends around us whom we can trust. You might also want to talk about God giving people the Holy Spirit and a way to be close friends with Him; we can t see either of these wonderful gifts with our eyes. The children may also talk about parts of nature that we can t see such as the wind and the air around us.