Psalm 146
Your Story
Talk about a time when you placed your trust in someone and you were disappointed.
My Story and the Bible Story
When I was a kid, my stepdad promised he would take us to Europe. Years went by and eventually he and my mom got a divorce. And in that whole time, he never took us to Europe. He didn’t keep his promise. He meant well when he promised to take us, but he couldn’t make it happen. We all experience that: people promise to do things or to give us things, we get excited about it, but, for whatever reason, they never do those things or give us the things they promised. Maybe your parents promised you a puppy but it turns out that your brother is allergic, or maybe someone promised to give you their favorite toy and they didn’t. Sometimes people promise us things that just don’t happen.
Read Psalm 146. From the NIV: “Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, the maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—the LORD who remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free, the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD.”
Psalm 146 reminds us that, while people can promise things, they can’t always follow through. But God is faithful, all the time. God reigns forever and always follows through with God’s promises. Eventually, every single one of us will die, but God will not. God has been and will always be there, through the generations. God remembers what God promised to Noah and to Abraham, to Moses and to Joshua, to Deborah and to Ruth, to Paul and to Lazarus. And God remembers what God promises us. We can cling to the promises in the Bible because we know that God is faithful and does what God promises. We can’t always do what we promise others, but God can and God does. What great news that is! No wonder the Psalmist says that God will sing praise to God for as long as he lives, because we can trust God.
Discussion
• Ask your children about broken promises: has anyone broken a promise to them? Have they broken promises to others?
• Talk about how we all break promises. If you like, talk about a promise you made to your children that you had to break and talk about your reasons for doing so.
• Talk about the things that God has promised us (that God will take care of us, that God will never leave us, that God will never destroy the earth again by flood, that God will forgive us, etc.).
Prayer
Thank God for always being faithful. Ask for help in remembering God’s promises.
Jessica Asbell is currently serving as the Minister to Children at First Baptist Church of Roswell, GA. She has worked with children in various capacities at several churches, including Winter Park Baptist in Wilmington, NC, First Baptist of Decatur, GA, and Highland Hills Baptist in Macon, GA. She has a Master of Divinity from McAfee School of Theology and a BBA from Mercer University. In her spare time she loves to read, watch movies, and of course spend time with her sweet kitty, Lucy.
