| Lift up your hands?
Are we to lift up our hands to God in worship? Are we to lift up
our hands in prayer? Why lift up hands to worship and pray? What does it mean to do so?
The word hand appears in 438 verses in the Bible. The Bible indicates two
ideas--blessing and supplication. In many cultures stretching forth the hands is an
indication to entreat another person to help, to give something, or to come. (Job 30:24,
Proverbs 1:24; Isaiah 65:1-2; Jeremiah 4:31; Lamentations 1:17).
Hands were extended for prayer in the direction of God's
dwelling (1 Kings 8:22; 54; 1 Chronicles 6:12, 13; 1 Kings 8:38- 39; cf. 2 Chronicles
6:29-30; Psalm 28:2; 134:2). Hands are lifted up to God in heaven. Hands express the inner
man. It expresses a desire for some response from God. To lift the hand to God means
invoking His help. Hands are an attempt to offer a blessing to God. Lifting up hands in
praise to God is an attempt to impart a blessing to God.
Pros and Con
"From the Old Testament scriptures it is obvious that
believers commonly prayed and praised while lifting their hands. The First Letter to
Timothy assumes the practice among males in Christian assemblies as late as 60 A.D.
Christian sarcophagus carving depicts person with hands lifted in prayer, attesting that
the practice was characteristic of Christian prayer in the Third Century A.D.1
Palms lifted up might express openness, invitation, surrender. Reaching out signifies
entreaty, supplication, and dependence. Hands extended palms out may symbolize extending a
blessing to God much as a minister's benediction with hands stretched over the
congregation imparts a blessing to them. We must never allow lifting our hands to become
an empty form; they are to express the inner being to God. As we use our hands to bless
God may there be a fresh release of expression from our hearts in prayer, worship, and
love to God. "Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy
name" (Psalm 63:4, KJV)." (Author unknown)
"Paul instructed Timothy in worship. "I want men
everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing. (1 Tim 2:8 NIV)
"Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD. (Ps 134:2 NIV) "I will
lift up my hands in thy name." (Ps 63:4 KJV) (See also Ps 28:2 Ps 141:2 Lam 2:19 Lam
3:41) Lifting your hands in worship is not a Pentecostal or a Charismatic type of worship.
Thousands of years ago God's people worshipped with their hands raised in the air, long
before a Pentecostal or Charismatic hung out their shingle. Lifting your hands is all
about the attitude of your heart. Its an visual expression of your need and utter
dependency upon God. You may stand very simply with the palms of your hands turned upward.
It's like saying, "I'm waiting Lord for you to fill my cup so that it's full and
overflowing." Other times you may stretch both hands heavenward and by that you are
saying, "God, I desperately need you to solve this problem in my life." On other
occasions you may hold one hand up as a victory salute to the Lord. There is no obligation
for anyone to lift their hands in worship. Lifting your hands does not make you more or
less spiritual than those who don't lift their hands. For me and many other people, we
have found that expressive worship is powerful and satisfying." (Pastor: Eugene
Harder, The Glory of Worship, Feb. 4/96)
"Such statements suggest that the efficacy of one's worship
is enhanced by the posture one assumes (in this case, lifting up one's hands). But surely
this is not the case. For if the effectiveness of our worship depended upon our posture,
would not God have told us? Would He not have left us instruction concerning this matter
(II Peter 1:3)? Would He not have advised us to adopt that most effective posture? Surely
He would have, but He did not." (Steve Higginbotham, LIFTING
UP HOLY HANDS, February 1998)
Early Church
Understand we do not believe everything these men taught, only
that these quotes are given as a comparison.
"With not even our hands to lofty elevated—but
elevated temperately and becomingly" (Tertullian, A.D. 198)
"Full of holy designs…you stretched forth your hands
to God Almighty." (Clement of Rome, A.D.96)
"We also raise the head and lift the hands to heaven."
(Clement of Alexandria, A.D.96)
"We lift our eyes to heaven with hands outstretched."
(Tertullian A.D.195)
"When a man adores God with a pure mind and hands
outstretched." (Mark Minucius Felix, A.D.200)
"The tax collector did not pray with eyes lifted up boldly
to heaven, nor with hands proudly raised." (Cyprian, A.D.250)
What God has to say
We have to remember that it's ultimately God who makes the rules
that govern our lives, practices, and worship. Any form of worship or style of worship is
dictated by God not man. There's basically two sides to the question of lifting up hands
within the meetings or fellowships in worship—one, it's practiced and anyone may do
so. The other is, they don't practice it and do not encourage others to do so.
At our home fellowship we do because we feel led of the Lord,
and that the Scriptures teach that we should. We encourage others to do so if they wish,
but we do not force others if they have not come to that conclusion. Our point in this
message is to allow the Scriptures to teach us. As you read the Scriptures below remember
it's God that speaks. We give these Scriptures without commentary, and pray the truth of
the word of God Almighty will come to you to His glory and honor.
And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I
will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; [and] the thunder shall cease, neither shall
there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth [is] the LORD'S. And
Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and
the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. (Exodus
9:29,33)
But Moses' hands [were] heavy; and they took a stone, and put
[it] under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the
one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down
of the sun. (Exodus 17:12)
His own hands shall bring the offerings of the LORD made by
fire, the fat with the breast, it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved [for] a
wave offering before the LORD. (Leviticus 7:30)
And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from
off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring
[it] within the vail: (Leviticus 16:12)
And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence
of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven:… What
prayer and supplication soever be [made] by any man, [or] by all thy people Israel, which
shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this
house:… And it was [so], that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer
and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling
on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. (1 Kings 8:22,38,54)
And he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all
the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands… For Solomon had made a brasen
scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set
it in the midst of the court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before
all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven… [Then] what
prayer [or] what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people
Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth
his hands in this house: (2 Chronicles 6:12,13,29)
And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and
having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto
the LORD my God. (Ezra 9:5)
And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people
answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and
worshipped the LORD with [their] faces to the ground. (Nehemiah 8:6)
If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward
him. (Job 11:13)
Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I
lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. (Psalm 28:2)
If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our
hands to a strange god. (Psalm 44:20)
Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in
thy name. (Psalm 64:3)
Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out
her hands unto God. (Psalm 68:31)
Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called
daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee. (Psalm 88:9)
My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have
loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes. (Psalm 119:48)
Lift up your hands [in] the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.
(Psalm 134:2)
Let my prayer be set forth before thee [as] incense; [and] the
lifting up of my hands [as] the evening sacrifice. (Psalm 141:2)
I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul [thirsteth] after
thee, as a thirsty land. Selah. (Psalm 143:6)
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from
you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
(Isaiah 1:15)
For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, [and] the
anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion,
[that] bewaileth herself, [that] spreadeth her hands, [saying], Woe [is] me now! for my
soul is wearied because of murderers. (Jeremiah 4:31)
Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches
pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him
for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.
(Lamentations 2:19)
Let us lift up our heart with [our] hands unto God in the
heavens. (Lamentations 3:41)
The mountains saw thee, [and] they trembled: the overflowing of
the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, [and] lifted up his hands on high.
(Habakkuk 3:10)
And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his
hands, and blessed them. (Luke 24:50)
I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy
hands, without wrath and doubting. (1 Timothy 2:8)
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble
knees. (Hebrews 12:12)
Amen?
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