Today in the high school Sunday school class I work with, the topic was Psalm 51, and how David confessed his sins to God after he was called out by Nathan in 2 Samuel.

And yes, it is an exceptional story of giving in to sin when you’re not using God to fill a hole in your life, but instead letting sin tempt you into filling it with other, worldly things. (In this case, adultery and murder)

But that’s not what I want to get at today. At the end of the class, the speaker had the students write their own Psalms, modeled after Psalm 51.

Since I’m a small group leader in class, I did the exercise, too. And I was thoroughly surprised at what came out of it.

So, I emplore you, read Psalm 51, and pay special attention to the language David uses. It’s not “Hey God, if you think what I did was wrong, I’m sorry” like we tend to apologize these days… No, David puts pen to paper and lets his emotions flow through it, getting to the very core of sin, and mending his relationship with God.

Then, after you read it, spend some time and write out your own Psalm, your own prayer to God (in song form, poem form, paragraph form, whatever you’re most comfortable with) and really put your emotion into it.

Post your thoughts and feelings as comments below, I’d like to know what you get out of this. And if you’re up for it, post your Psalm in the comments here, for everyone to read. If you’re not up for it, that’s alright too! I understand that many of you won’t want to make yours public.