Week 653 · about 45 minutes
Psalms 139
Psalms 139 · Memory verse Psalms 139:23
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Psalms 139), the matching word search and answer key (Psalms 139 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a small lamp
Hold a small lamp. Read Psalms 139 in about four minutes, stopping at Psalms 139:23: “Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Psalms 139?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Psalms 139 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me.” That is not a motto invented for a poster. It is the first sentence a family hears when this page is opened at night.
Keep going a little further. The chapter also says, “For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalms 139 opens with these words: “Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me.” The line to keep is Psalms 139:23: “Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.” Carry the word “search” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Psalms 139:23: “Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Psalms 139? Then try this: Read “Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.” once more. What does it show you about God? You do not have to finish every verse. You can close the book after the memory verse and still have read the Bible together.
Group game
Walk the room as if you are moving through Psalms 139. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Psalms 139:23. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Psalms 139 and write Psalms 139:23 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Psalms 139:23
“Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Psalms 139. Help us remember Psalms 139:23 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.