Family Worship Guides
Our Family Worship Guides are designed to help you prepare for worship the upcoming Sunday, with parents and children especially in mind. You can use this guide and the other resources to make yourself and your family more familiar with the songs, Scriptures, practices, and concepts that will be part of our worship in the coming Sunday, and so more ready to worship together with the church.
Family Worship Guide for April 19, 2026
Unit 10, Samuel Anointed David (1 Samuel 16)
In 1 Samuel 16, we see how the newly anointed future king of Israel served his predecessor with humility and grace. Though David was promised the throne of Israel, his time had not yet come. Therefore, David returned to his life as a shepherd. God would use the period of waiting and the trials for David’s good and to point us toward the Suffering Servant, Jesus, in whom we place our ultimate hope.
How did God use David’s humility for His glory and David’s good? How do we see this idea fully exemplified in Jesus?
When God rejected Saul as king, the Spirit of the Lord left him, and an evil spirit tormented him day and night. After one of Saul’s young men heard David play the lyre, Saul sent his servants to retrieve the young David, believing he could relieve his distress. Previously, we learned that David was a man after God’s own heart, and here we see a humble, servant-like heart as David played the lyre in Saul’s time of distress.
Saul didn’t know then that David would be his successor. Saul loved David so much that he even gave him the role of armor-bearer, asking Jesse for permission for David to remain in his service. David faithfully and humbly served Saul.
We see an even greater picture of service in Christ, depicted as the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53. While David’s humble service offered temporary relief for King Saul, Jesus’ humble and sacrificial death offers eternal rescue from sin for all who believe in Him.
May a humble, obedient adoration of the Lord mark us as His faithful followers. Pray the children in your care see Christ’s humility both as our example and the means of our salvation through faith. Like Saul, we need the peace that only God can provide through Christ.