Lifting up your hands in worship

[blhowes]

Have you ever been to a church where some of the people are lifting up their hands during worship and praising God? Not in the way you might picture charasmatics doing it, but more privately, hardly noticeable.

Two questions come to mind when I see people lifting up their hands during a worship service. 1) Why are they raising their hands? 2) Why don't I raise my hands when I worship?

Psa 63:4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

Do you raise your hands during worship? Why/why not? Raising my hands during worship isn't natural for me. What does it mean (if more than the obvious) to raise your hands during worship?

In the OT worship, did the people literally raise their hands during worship?

 

[Coram Deo]

In the Old Testament and the New Testament the Lifting up of hands were only done by all the men of the congregation (not just one person) for Prayer, or by the minister lifting up his hands during prayer.......

Never was the lifting up of hands ever done during singing nor done by just one or few people. It also is restricted to men....

Those are the only example's in scripture to interprate the lifting up of holy hands passage.....

Michael

Have you ever been to a church where some of the people are lifting up their hands during worship and praising God? Not in the way you might picture charasmatics doing it, but more privately, hardly noticeable.

Two questions come to mind when I see people lifting up their hands during a worship service. 1) Why are they raising their hands? 2) Why don't I raise my hands when I worship?

Psa 63:4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

Do you raise your hands during worship? Why/why not? Raising my hands during worship isn't natural for me. What does it mean (if more than the obvious) to raise your hands during worship?

In the OT worship, did the people literally raise their hands during worship?

 

[RamistThomist]

That psalm speaks of the "spiritual hands of your heart." Nice, incorporeal neo-platonic hands.

 

[blhowes]

In the Old Testament and the New Testament the Lifting up of hands were only done by all the men of the congregation (not just one person) for Prayer, or by the minister lifting up his hands during prayer.......

Never was the lifting up of hands ever done during singing nor done by just one or few people. It also is restricted to men....

Those are the only example's in scripture to interprate the lifting up of holy hands passage.....

Michael,
Thanks for your response.

I started looking for scriptures that support what you said.

Psa 134:1 <A Song of degrees.> Behold, bless ye the LORD, all ye servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of the LORD.
Psa 134:2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.
Psa 134:3 The LORD that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.

If it weren't for the last part of verse 1, you'd think that its something we're all exhorted to do. I'd never noticed the last part of the verse before, but when I read it the obvious question came to mind - who's in the house of the Lord during the nighttime?

According to Matthew Henry:

This psalm instructs us concerning a two-fold blessing: -
I. Our blessing God, that is, speaking well of him, which here we are taught to do, Psa_134:1, Psa_134:2. 1. It is a call to the Levites to do it. They were the servants of the Lord by office, appointed to minister in holy things; they attended the sanctuary, and kept the charge of the house of the Lord, Num_3:6, etc. Some of them did by night stand in the house of the Lord, to guard the holy things of the temple, that they might not be profaned, and the rich things of the temple, that they might not be plundered. While the ark was in curtains there was the more need of guards upon it...​