Children’s Sermon on Psalm 9 – The Courtroom of God

Use this children’s sermon based on Psalm 9 to teach children how God judges people fairly.

 

Scripture: Psalm 9

 

Needed: (optional: a mallet)

 

Children’s Sermon: In this children’s sermon, you’ll choose children to illustrate different roles in a courtroom. If you don’t have enough children, feel free to cast adults in the roles.

 

Tell children you’re going to have a mock court trial, and they’re going to pretend to be the different people in the trial. The crime is that when the children were playing together, one child hit another child. (Choose one child to be the Defendant and another to be the Plaintiff. Have them stand across from each other, facing forward, as they would in a courtroom.)

 

Next is the judge who will hear the case and give the person their punishment if they’re found guilty of hitting the other person. (Choose one child to be the Judge and give them the mallet if you have one. Have them stand in front of the Plaintiff and Defendant.)

 

The jury listens to what happened and decides if the person is guilty or not. (Choose 3 or students to be jurors and set them to the side of the Plaintiff.)

 

Finally, you have witnesses. These are the people who help tell the judge and jury what happened. (Choose your remaining students to be Witnesses and have them stand behind the Plaintiff and Defendant.)

 

So, in a human trial, the Plaintiff and Defendant and the Witnesses would tell what happened, the jury would decide if the Defendant is guilty, and the judge would give them their punishment.

 

But our Psalm today says that God is the judge.

 

(Read Psalm 9:7-8, quoted here in the NIV.)

 

“The Lord reigns forever;
    he has established his throne for judgment.
He rules the world in righteousness
    and judges the peoples with equity.”

So, if God is the judge, does He need any witnesses to tell Him what happened? (No, He sees everything, so He already knows what happened.)

 

Does He need a jury to help him decide if someone is guilty or not? (No, He already knows who is guilty and who isn’t.)

 

Because God sees and knows everything, we can trust that He will judge everyone fairly. He is the good judge who declares who the guilty parties are and gives them the punishment they deserve.

 

Closing Prayer: Lord, we know that You are the good judge. You see everything that happens, and You will punish the guilty like they deserve. We trust to bring about justice. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.