Lift up your hands in the holy place and praise the Lord! (Psalm 134:2 HCSB)
"We stand and lift up our hands for the joy of the Lord is our strength"
"We give You glory, lifting up our hands and singing Holy"
"Never gonna stop, never gonna stop, lifting up my hands to You, lifting up my heart"
The above lyrics are from familiar praise songs that we sing in our worship services. Notice how they refer to "lifting hands" in worship. Some churches practice lifting hands in their worship services all the time. Others never practice it. I have been members of both types of churches. It is easy to feel awkward or "out of place" if you are used to a more reserved, traditional service with no hand-lifting, and you then attend a more charismatic type of service where just about everyone else is lifting their hands. It can feel equally as awkward in the reverse situation, although it doesn't need to be so.
But what does the Bible say about lifting hands in worship to our Lord? Let's take a look at a few scripture references to hands being lifted in worship:
Ps. 63:4
So I will praise You as long as I live; at Your name, I will lift up my hands. (HCSB)
Ps. 119:48
I will lift up my hands to Your commands, which I love, and will meditate on Your statutes. (HCSB)
Ps. 134:2
Lift up your hands in the holy place and praise the Lord! (HCSB)
Lam. 3:41
Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven: (HCSB)
Nehemiah 8:6
Ezrah praised the Lord, the great God, and with their hands uplifted all the people said, "Amen, Amen!" Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. (HCSB)
So it is clear that God's Word encourages us to lift our hands in worship. There are also many scriptures exhorting us to lift up our hands in prayer, but we will take a look at some of those in my next post.
My own experience is that it can be a meaningful part of our worship experience to lift our hands to the Lord. It can bring a deeper intimacy to your worship experience. Does that mean that if you don't lift your hands that you're not worshiping? Of course not! God is looking not on the outward appearance, but on the heart, seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. At the same time, if you are lifting your hands in worship, you shouldn't feel awkward or "out of place" if those around you aren't. Don't worry if someone who is not really entering into worship gives you a strange look when you lift your hands. You're not worshiping for their approval but God's! We all need to remember that our worship is not for show, to impress those around us (that was one of the problems the Pharisees had), but it is an outpouring of the love and adoration we have for God alone!