Opening Prayer

Dear Jesus, sometimes we feel scared or alone. Thank you that you are always with us. Help us hear your Word today. Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 31:9-16

Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also. My life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails.

I hear people whispering about me. My neighbors are afraid of me. When people see me on the street, they run the other way. I have been forgotten like someone who has died — thrown away like a broken clay pot.

But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand. Deliver me from my enemies. Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love.

What This Means

Have you ever felt like nobody wanted to sit with you at lunch? Or like everyone was whispering about you? Maybe you felt so sad that your whole body hurt — your eyes stung from crying, your stomach was in knots, you just wanted to crawl into bed and disappear.

That’s how the person praying this psalm felt. He says he felt like a broken clay pot — you know, one of those pots that falls off the shelf and shatters into a hundred pieces. You can’t glue it back together. You can’t pour water into it. It’s useless. That’s how sad and alone he felt. Thrown away.

But right in the middle of all that sadness, something happens. Did you catch it? One little word changes everything: “But.” “But I trust in you, O LORD.” Everything before that word is darkness. Everything after it is light.

And then he says something amazing: “My times are in your hand.” That means all the scary things, all the hard days, all the moments when you feel forgotten — God is holding every single one of them in his hand. Not your enemies. Not the mean kids. Not the bullies. God.

Here’s what makes this psalm extra special: Jesus prayed it. When Jesus was dying on the cross, with nails in his hands and everyone mocking him, he prayed these very words: “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” Jesus knew what it felt like to be thrown away like a broken pot. He was broken for us — so that we would never be thrown away by God.

And you know what? When you pray “Into your hands I commend myself” at bedtime — that’s this psalm! You’re praying the same prayer Jesus prayed on the cross, and the same prayer Martin Luther prayed the night before he died.

Let’s Talk About It

Eberley: The psalmist says he felt like “a broken vessel” — something useless and thrown away. Why do you think God chose to save the world through someone who was broken on a cross? What does that tell us about how God works compared to how the world works?

Eberley: We say “my times are in your hand” — but what does that actually mean when bad things are happening right now? Is it easy to believe?

Sonja: The person praying this psalm felt like nobody wanted to be near him. Have you ever felt like that? What happened?

Sonja: What’s the little word that changes everything in the middle of the psalm? What comes after it?

Dahlia & Freddy: What did the person in the psalm feel like? (A broken pot!) Can you fix a broken pot? But can God fix broken people?

Remember This

Even when we feel broken and thrown away, God holds all our days in his hand.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, you know what it feels like to be alone and hurting. You were broken on the cross so we would never be thrown away. When we feel sad or scared, help us say with you: “My times are in your hand.” We trust you. Into your hands we put ourselves tonight and every night. Amen.

Memory Verse

“My times are in your hand.” — Psalm 31:15