Adaptable Meeting Guide: David - A Leader who created | Issues

THIS WEEK’S PASSAGE PSALM 139

BACKGROUND PREPARATION Read through Psalm 139 several times, absorbing what it says and reflecting on David’s words. Print out photos of the people you select for the secret life activity, and type up one key fact about each of their lives onto a separate piece of paper. Print out the copies of Psalm 139, and set up the stations you need.

Secret life

5 mins

Present the group with photographs of the famous leaders and thinkers below (for more examples, go to the links section of the Youthwork website). Explain that their task is to match up the photos with the interesting facts about their hidden lives. Here are some examples:

• W. H. Auden - swallowed Benzedrine every morning for 20 years, and kept a glass of vodka by his bed.

• Winston Churchill - awoke at 7:30am, and remained in bed for breakfast and to read his mail and all of the national newspapers. For the next couple of hours, still in bed, he worked, dictating to his secretaries.

• Barack Obama - reads several papers, eats breakfast with his family and helps pack his daughters off to school before making the 30-second commute downstairs.

• C. S. Lewis – had breakfast at exactly eight o’clock and arrived at his desk by nine, there to read or write until one. He had a cup of tea brought to him at exactly 11.

• Napoleon - one or more of his valets washed him and helped him shave, then rubbed him down with a coarse brush and doused him with eau de cologne and finally helped him dress, an elaborate process which took one or two hours.

Once they have had a go, reveal the answers. Ask each person to think of their daily routine – what does it include? What are the key building blocks to each and every day?

David’s secret life

15 mins

Say: each of the people we have just looked at had certain behavioural traits or lifestyle patterns – things that helped or hindered them. King David, who we have been looking at together for the past few weeks had his own ‘hidden life’: a close, authentic and beautifully creative relationship with God. Split the group into three and ask each of the different groups to look at one of the following passages, and answer the questions below.

• 1 Samuel 16:14-23 -- When do you think David learnt to play the harp? -- Do you think it’s significant that God used David in this way? -- What can we learn about David through this passage?

• 2 Samuel 6:12-14 -- Why do you think David’s wife was so embarrassed? -- Do you think it was normal for a king to dance like this? -- What can we learn about David through this passage?

• 2 Samuel 22 -- What does this song say about David? -- What do you think of the song? Does it feel honest and heartfelt? -- What can we learn about David through this passage?

Ask: what do we learn from all of these passages? David was a worshipper who had an intimate relationship with God. He was also extremely creative and honest with God about his feelings and failings. He was always passionate, worshipping with reckless abandon, and unconcerned about what other people would think – even when he was king. David wrote many of the Psalms - songs and poems to God expressing the way he felt. Today we are going to look at one of those Psalms, and explore being creative in worship ourselves.

Psalm 139

40 mins

Hand out printed copies of Psalm 139. Ask your young people to read through it quietly to themselves, underlining anything that seems significant to them. Then ask one person to read out the entire Psalm, with everyone else listening. Explain to the group that you are now going to try being creative, using David’s Psalm as a starting point. Around the room, set up creative stations with all of the various activities. Explain to the group that they can choose to spend the next 20 minutes at the stations they find most appealing; they can either choose one and stay there, or move around them. The idea is to take the words of the Psalm and be creative with it. Here are some creative station ideas (select the ones you think will work best for your group and setting):

• Song writing. Provide a guitar, a drum and perhaps a keyboard to enable a song writing session. Your young people could either choose to set the lyrics of this psalm to music, or to modernise it – either rapping or singing.

• Drawing and painting. Provide paper, paints and pens. You may want to give some creative inspiration, by printing off pictures or paintings drawn around this psalm over the years.

• T-shirt making. Print off some transfers (you can buy these online) with the words ‘Beautifully and wonderfully made’ and provide some t-shirts. You will need an ironing board and iron. If you can provide a printer, then the young people could even design their own transfers, using the parts of the Psalm most relevant to them.

• Video. Provide instructions for the young people to create a video expressing some of the core themes of this Psalm. These could be ‘God knows us intimately’, or it could be ‘beautifully and wonderfully made’. Encourage your young people to share these with their friends at the end, as a witness of how much God loves them.

• Writing. Provide pens and paper to enable people to write their own poems, songs, letter or story to God.

• Reflection. Set up some cushions and music in a quiet corner, and allow your young people to reflect on the words of the Psalm – absorbing them deeply. You may want to print out a large copy of the psalm for them to look at.

If you have time, get each of your young people to share what they have been doing.