The following devotional is by David Good, from his devotional book--Captivated by the Heart of God.
Psalm 134 instructs us to lift up our hands in worship to the Lord. There is good reason to do this, and not just because the bible tells us to. There is something very powerful about the act of lifting our hands up in worship that when we understand it, we will find it hard to do anything else as we worship.
We have all heard the illustration that lifting hands is a sign of surrender. We are saying, "I give up. You've got me." That is part of it, as worship as an act of surrendering ourselves to God, not just our minds and emotions, but literally our bodies. But it goes much deeper than that and has a more profound meaning in worship. God is fascinated with our hands. Isaiah 49:16 tells us that he has "engraved" our names on the palm of his hand. Think about that for a moment. Do you remember your first girlfriend of boyfriend? Perhaps you were so infatuated with that person that you wrote their name on your hand. There was something endearing, a warm and fuzzy feeling about enjoying the privilege of writing their name on your palm so you could look at it. You might have even caught yourself just whispering that name. Now I'm not comparing God to a silly schoolgirl, but knowing that God has my name engraved on his palm, knowing that he loves me so much that he even loves to just whisper my name makes me understand just how deep, how wide, and how high his love actually is. To know that the Maker of the Universe wrote my name on the palm of his hand has huge implications for my life.
Now, let's take this a step further. Look at your palms. At birth he engraved something on your hands too. He has signed your name on your palms in the form of a finger print. Yours is unique to countless billions of people who have been born and will ever be born. You are the only one out of billions who has that imprint on your hands. We use our fingerprints to positively identify ourselves. God does too. When we lift our hands up to him in worship, we are in essence saying, "Here I am, Lord. It's me. I'm here to worship you with all that I am today." As He looks at the palms of your hands, he then looks at his hands and sees a perfect match and says, "I know you. I have your name right here on my hands too!" He then reaches down and takes our hand in his and lifts us up above all the cares, the problems and worries, all the frustration and pain of this world, and lifts us up into his realm. I remember the first time my wife and I held hands when we were dating. Suddenly I knew my life was going to be forever changed because I would never be alone after that. What a beautiful and powerful picture of worship.
A few years ago I wrote a song that captures the essence of this picture. I hope it blesses you and reminds you just how much he loves you and wants to embrace you and hold you by the hand today. As you worship him, go ahead and lift your hands to him. Here are the words:
Long before the world began,
my name was written in Your hand.
Before You hung the stars above,
You held me in Your perfect love.
Long before the span of time,
I was always on Your mind.
Lord, I'll never understand
how You could love me as I am
And sent Your Son to die for me
so I could live eternally with You.
Here I am to worship You,
here I am to honor You.
Lord, my heart belongs to You,
now I give it back to You.
Here I am.
(words and music by David Good copyright 2007)