Psalm 107 is long, but for this lesson we’ve focused on a tiny part of it — what is usually written as the first and fourth paragraph (or pericope for the theology scholars among us). These look at gathering and rescuing God’s people, and these games echo those ideas.
A naming exercise where you take it in turns naming something you are thankful for, assign it a mime or action and then as a group make the action accompanied by a whoop of joy! Link: verse 22
‘Stuck in the Mud’
All Ages
Any size group
No Setup time
Noisy game
Space needed
A classic game where getting tagged freezes you until another player can rescue you. (Also called freeze tag.) Link: being rescued.
Psalm Beat
Ages 7+
Any size group
No Setup time
Noisy game
Can be seated
Using a small section of words from the Psalm as lyrics, have the youngsters make up a tune or a beat to sing the words. Add percussion instruments and work in pairs. Link: Psalms were songs sung, not read.
Faithful Grip
All Ages
Any size group
Requires setup time
Quiet game
Can be seated
Each child has a piece of ice they must pass between their hands, never stopping. They lose when they drop the ice. The winner is the last one holding their ice. Link: Even with all life’s moving parts God never lets us go.
This is a small moving papercraft based on Psalm 107 verse 22 “Let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices and announce his works with shouts of joy.” This is a little mechanism papercraft that opens to reveal the end of the verse and see the people lift up in their ‘shouts of joy’.
The Psalm lessons each have two colouring pages in place of the usual Hero Resources.
These will print on either A4 or US letter sized paper as they are made slightly bigger than both.
The images are displayed small here, click on the image you wish to have, then save the image that loads. (These images are not copyright free, they are for personal/classroom use only.)
Kids love puppet crafts and nestled in the reading for Psalm 107 is verse 22 is probably my favourite “Let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices and announce his works with shouts of joy.” It just begs a response, not just of Joy but of a shout. That’s where this craft comes from. It’s probably the simplest form of puppet there is.
This week we look at Psalm 107. I’ve only used part of the Psalm, but older groups may want to read the whole thing. It’s a song that turns suffering into praise. Accepting there will be suffering, there will be bad things, but that God can save us from them is part of the trials of discovering life. Teaching children that God does not promise us a life of ease is an important part of developing their faith into something that is lasting.
These psalm lessons follow the Lectionary passages for the six weeks of year B Lent.
This retold version of the Bible passage is supplied for inspiration, feel free to omit or embellish to give it your personal voice.
We are going to read a song, a song Jesus may have sung with his friends, a song from the book of songs to be sung – the book called Psalms. Have you ever been rescued? How did you feel afterwards? Did you thank the person who saved you? God’s people were always getting into trouble, and God kept saving them, again and again. This is a song of joy to thank God for being the one who always saves his people.
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his faithful love endures forever. 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord proclaim that he has redeemed them from the power of the foe 3 and has gathered them from the lands— from the east and the west, from the north and the south
Pause – Wow! In those few lines God tells us three things: God’s love never ever runs out, there is nothing so big that God can’t save us from it, and we can never get too far from God to be saved.
19 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; he saved them from their distress. 20 He sent his word and healed them; he rescued them from their traps. 21 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his faithful love and his wondrous works for all humanity. 22 Let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices and announce his works with shouts of joy.
Do you think when they sung that song they shouted the last bit? There is so much to celebrate about God’s faithful love. It never leaves us, it never gives up or fades away; it never stops working. God wanted to save us so much he came down from heaven. Jesus came to save us, to show us a bigger picture of the love of God, to win the war over darkness. How can we join the celebration and thank God today?