Psalm 3 Sunday School Lesson for Kids

This is lesson 3 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 3 we see God displayed as a shield who protects His people. Through this lesson, kids will learn that the ultimate way that God shields His people is through Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross which shields His people from His wrath.
Passage: Psalm 3
Target Audience: Kindergarten-4th Grade (can be adapted for older or younger children)
Teaching Time: 45 minutes – 1 hour
Materials Needed: paper plates, strips of paper, 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. – – “Needs vs. Wants”– – Put a large piece of paper up in the room. Divide it in the middle and write “needs” on one side and “wants” on the other side. Tell the group that they have 5 minutes to fill the page with words or pictures that describing things that are either needs or wants. After they have finished, chat with them about how they decided what was a need and what was a want. Suggest other things that they may not have put on the page and have them decide if those things are needs or wants.
Read the Text. . .Psalm 3 ….

• • 1. Have one of the kids in the group read Psalm 3, or have the whole group read it from their books.
       

• • 1. Discuss the Passage–  After reading through the passage, chat with the kids in the group about what they heard in these verses about who God is and what He does. Point out that 2 of the major truths that this Psalm points out about God is that He is a shield who protects His people and He sustains His people. Explain that you’re going to think about God’s protection a little later.
       Have one of the kids reread verse 5. Ask them if they ever think about what God does while they’re sleeping. Have all the kids lie on the floor with their eyes closed. Ask them to tell you what they are doing. Prompt them to get to the point of naming things like breathing, heart beating, blood pumping, etc. Then, ask them what they had to do to make those things happen. Help them to see that this is one of the things we mean when we say that God sustains us….He keeps our heart beating, He keeps our lungs working so we can breathe, etc.
       

• 1. Cross Connection-Read Acts 17:24-25. Remind the kids that they just heard that God sustains (and even gives in the 1^st place) physical life. We wake up each more because He is sovereign (in charge) over all things and He chooses for us to wake up. We breathe because He chooses for us to be able to breathe. Then ask, “this is what God does for all people, but how does He sustain (or keep) the life of His chosen people?” Move into a discussion of God giving new life through Christ and sustaining the spiritual life of His people as well. Remind the kids in the group that on our own we are all sinners who deserve to die for our sin (Romans 3:23 & 6:23), but through faith in Jesus and believing that He died for our sins God gives His people eternal life (John 3:16). Remind kids that salvation is a free gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9) and that it’s nothing we deserve and we can’t do anything to earn it, but God give His children the gift of eternal life.

Make a “Praise Shield”–  Read through Psalm 3 again and point out what David says about God in verse 3 – that God is a shield who protects Him. Hand out the paper plates and explain that you want them to fill the bottom (not the side you put food on) of the plate with words or pictures that describe who God is or what He is like. Then, give each kid a strip of paper that can be stapled onto the top (the food side) of the plate to form a handle. As kids work, talk about how God acts as a shield protecting His people physically, but also the knowledge of Him protects us in various situations….example: knowing that God heals is a comfort to someone who is sick, or knowing God is sovereign is a comfort when things seem to be out of control around you, etc. Have kids share a few of the things that they put on their shield and how knowing that about God could protect you. Close the activity by talking about how the ultimate way that God protects His people is protecting them from His own wrath by sending Jesus to die on the cross in our place.
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. write a verse from the passage that they want to remember
2. write a reason to praise God that they see in the Psalm
3. 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 3. 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- If you have any extra time at the end, play Name That Book…. This is a “20 Questions” style Bible review game. You think of a book and have kids ask YES or NO questions to figure out what book you’re thinking of. The other way of playing this game, is to give clues about the book one at a time until someone guesses which book you’re thinking of.