If you’ve been to a Sunday morning service at New Hope, then you’ve seen people lift their hands during the part of the service when we worship God with musicand song.
But why do believers do that?
It’s a gesture that carries symbolic significance - it’s an outward expression on something going on in the person’s heart. It can represent several things...
Blessing - Almost from the beginning of the Scriptures, we observe a tradition of one person blessing another by speaking a blessing over them while laying their hands upon them. When blessing from a distance or blessing a group of people, one would extend hands toward them while speaking the blessing.
Then Aaron lifted his hand toward the people, blessed them… - Leviticus 9:22
Just last Sunday we had a child dedication at our Sunday morning. As we prayed over the family, our congregation was invited to extend their hands toward them as a sign of agreeing with the blessing we were praying over them.
When we sing songs to the Lord in worship, we are speaking blessings to Him. Lifting our hands toward Heaven while doing this is simply following the traditional Biblical posture one would take when proclaiming blessings. In those moments, we are using our bodies to show that we are blessing the Lord.
Supplication - The dictionary defines this as “the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly”. The extending of hands can be seen in the actions of a beggar on the street or even a child asking their parent for a hug. We will often lift or extend our hands during times of prayer or worship to signify our desire for the Lord’s blessing upon us. It is voluntarily taking the humble posture of poverty before the Lord, expressing our need for more of Him and acknowledging that without Him we have nothing.
Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You, when I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary. - Psalm 28:2
Surrender - While not modeled in Scripture, many believers will lift their hands as a physicalrepresentation of spiritual surrender. As believers, we desire our hearts to be fully yielded and surrendered to God. By taking the universal posture of surrender(“Hands up!”), we are modeling the posture we desireour hearts to take before the Lord.
Joy & Victory - Additionally, there is something universal about hands going up in moments of joy or victory. This doesn’t have to be taught - it just happens. It happens when your favorite team scores a goal or a touchdown. It happens when your favorite band takes the stage at the beginning of a concert. It’s just what we’re wired to do and it happens in every culture around the world.
We will often lift our hands in times of worship to celebrate or rejoice over the victory that Jesus has won for us through His death and resurrection. It’s more worthy of celebrating than anything else in existence!
There is something powerful about the lifting and extending of hands. Most believers, including myself, have discovered that when it’s difficult to make our hearts take a humble spiritual posture in worship… taking that posture with our bodies first can lead to a spiritual breakthrough.
Our heart is often more difficult to fight than our flesh. When we willingly force our bodies to adopt a posture of worship before the Lord, our hearts will usually follow.
If you’ve never tried it or haven’t done it for a while, get alone with God and some good worship music (or just sing yourself) and do it!
