Church Congregation Lifting Hands In Praise And Worship And Prayer 1. biblical precedent. i lift my hands when i pray and praise because i have explicit biblical precedent for doing so. i don’t know if i’ve found all biblical instances of it, but consider this smattering of texts. “so i will bless you as long as i live; in your name i will lift up my hands” (psalm 63:4). In 1 timothy 2:8, paul draws on the ot practice of lifting hands in prayer (#1 in the summary above). based on the ot evidence, the best case or justification for raising hands in worship can be found in psalm 134:2 and 141:2 (from # 2 in the summary above). these two examples give rise to several questions the serious student of the bible.
Silhouette Of A Man Lift Hands Up And Prayer And Worship God At Sunset And psalm 141:2 says, “let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!”. and paul says in 1 timothy 2:8, “i desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.”. There is biblical precedent for both the lifting of hands and the clapping of hands as an act of worship. psalms 47:1 says, “clap your hands, all you nations; shout to god with cries of joy.”. in this instance, both clapping and shouting out joyful worship to god are urged. in 1 timothy 2:8, we read, “i want men everywhere to lift up holy. As you may have noticed, raising our hands in worship can carry some of the very same meanings as it does at other times. god created us in such a way that what we do reflects what we believe and what we love. that is why the author of lamentations wrote: "we lift up our heart and hands toward god in heaven" (lamentations 3:41, esv). Finally, the phrase mōʿal yādayim “lifting up hands” is used once in the description of a prayer in the book of nehemiah: 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).
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