“Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.” (Lamentations 3:41)
In this verse, in one of the most heart wrenching books of the Bible and certainly the Old Testament, we have an explanation of why we lift our hands when praying. It’s a physical expression of lifting our hearts toward heaven, “...with our hands...” we lift our hearts unto God in the heavens. It’s a physical expression and a visual expression of what we cannot see. We cannot see your heart lifted up to God, but we can see your hands lifted up to God.
It was Moses in whom we first saw the connection of lifting our hands up to the Lord. When the people of Israel fought with Amalek, as long as Moses kept his hands lifted to God, connected to the Lord God in heaven and in a prayerful position Israel was victorious. When his arms didn’t have the strength to be lifted up anymore, Aaron and Hur held up his arms. “And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. 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 17:11-12) This has implications for us.
In some churches today, lifting up hands isn’t forbidden but frowned upon and is thought of as exhibitionistic or emotionalism. That’s what Michal, David’s wife thought when she saw David dancing before the Lord. “And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal Saul's daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.” (2Samuel 6:16) But David had no pretense of who he was before the Lord. “Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself! And David said unto Michal, It was before the LORD, which chose me before thy father, and before all His house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel: therefore will I play before the LORD. And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour. Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death.” (2Samuel 6:20-23) If we look as exhibitionists when we worship, we are exhibitionists for the Lord. If we look over dramatic and emotional before the Lord, we are that before the Lord. In the world people get emotional, over dramatic and publicly display their emotions for their football teams without shame. Why should we be shamed for being as enthusiastic for our God, Who is over all and our Savior Whose grace and mercy fill our lives? One is just a game; the other is Supreme over all our lives and the world.
When Solomon dedicated the temple, he lifted up his hands up to heaven in prayer. “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:” (1Kings 8:22). Then further on we learn he was on his knees with his hands lifted up. “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.” (1Kings 8:54) These are positions of prayer. They express the humbling of our hearts before the Lord and our surrender to Him.
Paul had something to say about the lifting up of our hands in prayer to Timothy. “I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.” (1Timothy 2:8) The key is the motivation for lifting our hands. It must be totally to and for the Lord without any second thought of others around us. Then again, without wrath tells us that if it offends, it’s better not to offend. But we can mourn that others cannot express their love for the Lord and that they keep others from expressing their love physically and emotionally.
But like David writes, “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice,” (Psalm 141:2) let us lift our hands to express physically how our hearts are lifted up to the Lord in prayer.
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