Elementary Sunday School Lesson Dr.

Jack Schaap, Pastor

First Baptist Church
Hammond, Indiana
=STORIES BEHIND THE PSALMS=
Lesson 10
Psalm 119

Scripture: II Kings 22; 23:1-8, Psalm 119

Objects to have:

A bar of soap
A rope
A box prepared to look like the Bible. (Prepare it so that it will open and these objects can be taken from it as
they are needed:)
Money
A diamond ring or something resembling a diamond ring
A paper circle
A piece of candy
A little model lamp or a flashlight
A face with a happy smile
Something white
A sheet of paper with a big check mark on it
Chalk and chalkboard
Your Bible.

Introducing the lesson:

(Hold up your Bible that is open to Psalm 119.) Here is my Bible. My Bible is open to a song book. The song
book of the Bible is called The Book of Psalms. There are many songs or psalms in the Book of Psalms; in fact,
there are 150 Psalms. In our Bible stories we have been talking about why some of the Psalms were written.
There is another Psalm for today—Psalm 119.

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in all of the Bible; there are 176 verses in this chapter. Listen to the story about
Psalm 119.

Telling the story:

Josiah was eight years old. Josiah could have been in the second grade. “Hurry up, Josiah. It’s time to go to
have you crowned king.” Usually only a grown man is crowned king of a country. Sometimes, however, grown
men do not love God and do not want to do the things He wants them to do. Josiah, even though he was a young
boy, would be a good king. He loved God. He wanted to please Him.

Josiah grew. He became a man, and he had been king for many years. One day he said to his workers, “Look at
God’s house; look at the temple. The walls have big cracks in them. The floors are filthy dirty. The furniture is
broken. We need to get some people to clean up the temple. We need to paint. We need to fix the floor.”

“Yes,” the builders said, “we want the temple to be fixed up. We will start working right away.” The builders did
start working to clean up the temple. They began painting. They worked on the windows. They were repairing
the floor.

While the men were busy one day, one of the workers came running to Josiah. The worker was very, very
excited! “Oh, King, look what we have found in the temple!”

“What is it?” asked Josiah. “It looks like a book.”

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“It is a book,” said the worker, “but not just any book. It is a special book. This is God’s Word. The Bible has
been lost for a long, long time. We have found it.”

Very gently Josiah took the copy of the Bible which the workmen had found in the temple. The Bible had been
lost for many, many years. Now it was found again! Josiah very carefully opened it and started to read it. He
read the laws which God gave His people to keep.

Josiah laid down the Bible, and he started to cry. He said, “Oh, what is going to happen to my people? They did
not know God’s Word. I see that they have sinned terribly against God. They have sinned because the men who
were kings before me did not love God. They were not careful with God’s Word. They let God’s Word be lost.
Now we have found it. Now we must come to God and tell Him all about our sins and how sorry we are for
them.”

Josiah called a big meeting of all the important people of the country. Other people were asked to come, too.
King Josiah said, “Everyone be quiet. Listen while God’s Word is read to us.” The preacher stood up and read
God’s Word to the people. After he was finished reading, Josiah stood up again. King Josiah told the people that
they ought to be very thankful that God’s Word had been found. He said, “Be careful to do all that God has told
us to do in His Word.”

How wonderful it is that we have the Bible, children. (Teacher, pick up your box which has been prepared to
look like a Bible.) I wonder how important it is to have a Bible. Let’s see. (Teacher, open the box-Bible and pull
out some money. Attached to the money and each of the other objects that you pull out of your Bible should be a
tag which you read.) Oh, look, here is some money. Here is a tag attached to the money. Let’s read what it says.
The tag says, “It’s more important to have the Bible than to have thousands of dollars.” Psalm 119 tells us that.

Here is a ring. In this ring is a diamond. The diamond is the hardest thing that is on earth. Here is a tag attached
to the diamond. The tag says, “Even though a diamond could last almost forever, the Bible is better than that.
God’s Word never changes. It is always faithful.”

Here is a circle. The circle makes me think of God. The tag says, “God always was and always will be. There is
no beginning and no end.” God is always loving, and never changes. His Word will never change, either. The
Bible tells us that God hates sin. God’s Word tells us that Jesus died for us so that we can go to Heaven. God’s
Word never changes. His promise will never be broken. If we trust Jesus, we’ll go to Heaven.

This is a delicious piece of candy. Candy is sweet. Candy has sugar in it. The tag reads, “The Bible is sweet,
too.” We love to read it; we enjoy it.

Here is a lamp or a light. The tag reads, “The Bible helps us to know what to do and when to do it.” The Bible is
like a lamp or a light to our life’s pathway.

Here is a picture with a happy smile. When I think of the Bible, it makes me happy to think I have God’s Word to
read. The tag says, “The Bible is wonderful.”

Here’s something white. When I see something pure and white, I think of something that has no sin in it. There
is no lie about it. The tag reads, “There is no lie about what God tells us in His Word.” The Bible is absolutely
true.

Here is a check mark. When you take a test in school, and you put down answers on a paper, the teacher will
sometimes put check marks beside the right answers. The tag reads, “The Bible is always right.” The Bible is
never wrong.

(Pick up your Bible.) See Psalm 119. Psalm 119 tells us all the things that I just told you about the
Bible. The Bible is more valuable than money. The Bible will never change. The Bible is always true. The Bible
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is wonderful. The Bible is sweet to read. The Bible is a light to help us to know how to live our lives. The Bible
is never wrong. It is always right.

We have learned what the Bible is and how wonderful it is. We can see a little bit now why Josiah was so excited
when the Bible was found in the temple. We are never to be ashamed of the Bible. We’re supposed to be happy
to let people know that we love the Bible and want to read the Bible. When we read the Bible, we are supposed to
obey it. Whatever God tells us to do in the Bible, we’re supposed to do it.

There is more that Psalm 119 tells us. (Pick up the bar of soap and pretend to be washing. Pick up the towel and
pretend to be drying.) The Bible won’t wash our skin because it doesn’t have soap in it like this. Reading the
Bible, however, will wash us on the inside. (Draw a face on the chalkboard that has frown marks on it.) This
person looks worried. He’s going to pick up the Bible and read it. (Pretend to read the Bible. Turn to the
chalkboard and draw another face that doesn’t have frown marks on it.) Look, after reading the Bible, we don’t
have to be worried about what to do. God will let us know what to do.

(Draw a solemn face on the board. Then, after saying the following, turn and draw a smiling face.) This person is
busy. He’s not sad. He’s just busy. Then he picks up God’s Word and reads it. It helps him in his busy life.

(Draw a face on the board with the mouth turned down. After saying the following, draw a face with the mouth
turned up.) My feelings are hurt. Someone said something to make me feel sad. I guess I’ll read my Bible. Oh,
the Bible is good for me. If I will keep on reading it everyday, it will keep me from having hurt feelings.

(Draw a little heart on the board. After saying the following, draw a great big heart beside it.) It’s time for me to
read my Bible. Reading my Bible helps me to love other people.

(Take the piece of rope and tie your wrists with it. Then untie it after saying the following.) Do you know that
Satan would like to tie us up to doing wrong all the time? Sometimes we know to do better, but it’s hard to do
right all the time. I’m going to pick up my Bible and read it. Now I have power to do right.

Children, let’s always treasure God’s Word. It will be good to us all of our lives. It gets better and better every
time we read it and every time we learn more from it.

LEARN OUR BIBLE VERSE: Psalm 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against
thee.”