This is quite a long passage to work with for Family Worship, so I’m going to suggest we focus on one key aspect – the interplay between joy and sorrow. We see this in a confused way in Neh.8:9-11, where the people are weeping and mourning as they hear the Word of God read and explained, when in fact the Levites seem to think they should be rejoicing and feasting. The same tension is in Ch.9 – the Israelites are fasting and wearing sackcloth (9:2), and also praising the Lord!
This is an important spiritual dynamic for us to get used to, and it means we can’t be simplistic about our emotional life in worship.
The cause is rooted in the way that our sense of our sinfulness is accentuated as we confront the reality of God’s righteousness.
One way of illustrating this is with an optical illusion such as this one:
The ‘horizontal’ lines look like they bend, until we put a ruler alongside them and see they are in fact straight.
(You can make the illusion / see it being made on youtube.)
something similar happens as we think about ourselves. We can enjoy a spiritual illusion that we are good people... until we measure ourselves against the straight rule of God’s Law.
Then two things happen – the first is we see the glorious righteousness of God! that causes us to worship. The second is that by contrast we see that we aren’t really all that like Him! That causes our sorrow and confession.
It’s a bit like a light that causes darker shadows the brighter it shines.
A helpful exercise would be to take one of the 10 commandments... maybe the one about not stealing (8) or not telling lies about other people (9). or if you want one that Jesus explains, how about ‘you shall not murder’ (6, see Matt.5:21-26). Help your child(ren) to think through what the commandment means. So for example, if we are commanded not to steal, then what should we do? honour other people’s property... generosity... share etc. could all be the opposite of taking what doesn’t belong to us. This could lead to a ‘heart’ discussion about greed, and jealousy etc. that feed our temptation to take what isn’t ours! So we can see how confronting the ‘straight edge’ of God’s Law begins to expose our crooked heart and the actions that flow from it (Matt.12:33-35, or 15:19, out of a person’s heart comes ... theft).
Then reflect on what this commandment teaches us about God... He is a generous God who freely gives us good things to enjoy (Matt.7:11, Jas.1:17). This inspires our worship of Him!
you can do the same exercise with any of the commandments... you might have a vested interest in doing the 5th!
It is important to emphasise the faithfulness and grace of God as we confront the reality of our falling short of His glory. This is the point of the epic retelling of the Church’s history in Neh.9 – to underline that God is compassionate, loving, and faithful. So why not use this as a memory verse:
Neh.9:17, You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them...
or try this family worship song, based on I John 1:8-9…