Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

Lifting of the hands would be done as an act of reaching in the direction of God's abode in heaven as a gesture either of appeal for His help in times of trouble, or of acknowledgement and thanksgiving to Him as the grantor of all blessings in response to favorable events, or of praise that is due to Him for His love, grace, and mercy (as in providing for the redemption of humanity through Jesus).

June 20 2019 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jack Gutknecht ABC/DTS graduate, guitar music ministry Baptist church

Should we raise our hands during musical worship, or keep them in our pockets? (when singing, etc.)

NET ©

For this reason 1 I will praise you while I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. 2 

NET © Notes

1 tn Or perhaps “then.”

2 sn I will lift up my hands. Lifting up one’s hands toward God was a gesture of prayer (see Ps 28:2; Lam 2:19) or respect (Ps 119:48).

And Psalm 63:4 says, “I will bless you as long as I live; in your name, I will lift up my hands.” 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.”

Now, I doubt that Paul meant, in 1 Timothy 2:8, that it’s contrary to God’s will for men to pray without lifting the hands. Rather, what I think he wanted to say is it’s contrary to God’s will that they pray without “holy hands” when they lift their hands. In other words, I don’t think it’s a mandate that every time a man prays, his hands must be in the air, but that if his hands are in the air, in his prayer, it will be better if they were holy hands.

June 21 2019 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report