Questions and Answers

Why lift your hands in prayer?

• It’s a sign of humility, submission, praise and dependence upon God as we worship Him for all He is.
• It is a natural gesture, indicating desire, like a small child desiring to be held.
• It can also be a sign of the surrender, offering ourselves to our Father God.
• Shows our need for God – like dry land needs rain.

At the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God. And I said: "O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. …And now for a little while grace has been shown from the LORD our God... that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us … revival…

Ezra 9:5-6, 8

"Arise, cry out in the night, At the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift your hands toward Him For the life of your young children, Who faint from hunger at the head of every street." Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven.              

Lament. 2:19/3:41

 I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.                               

1 Timothy 2:8 NIV

Why do I lift my hands in worship? It is an act of praise!

Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands towards your Most Holy Place.            

Psalms 28:2 NIV

I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.                                                   

Psalms 63:4 NIV

My eye wastes away because of affliction. LORD, I have called daily upon You; I have stretched out my hands to You.   

Psalms 88:9

Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD.

                                                                   Psalms 134:2 NIV

May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice             

Psalms 141:2 NIV

I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah                                                     

Psalms 143:6 NIV 

Now he had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had placed it in the centre of the outer court. He stood on the platform and then knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands towards heaven.                                                                         

2 Chronicles 6:13 NIV 

Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; "whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple:          

1 Kings 8:22, 38

Even creation lifts its hands!

The mountains saw You [and] trembled; The overflowing of the water passed by. The deep uttered its voice, [And] lifted its hands on high.

Habakkuk 3:10

God’s Word deserves praise as well.

My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, Which I love, And I will meditate on Your statutes.                                  

Psalms 119:48

Why bow down? Bowing is a symbol of reverence. Because God is God we honor Him and bow down.

But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house; in reverence will I bow down towards your holy temple.             

Psalms 5:7 NIV

I will bow down towards your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.                        

Psalms 138:2 NIV

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. 

Daniel 6:10 

Why clap my hands? Clapping is also symbolic of thanksgiving and praise (applause).

Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph!                                                                          

Psalms 47:1

Even the trees will clap their hands!

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.                                                     

Isaiah 55:12 NIV 

Why be so intense in Praise? God’s touch sometimes is like being let out of a prison. There’s no telling how a person will act. Some may cry, or scream, or jump up and down and others simply sit very still and let their silent tears flow down.

With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD: "He is good; his love to Israel endures for ever." And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. No-one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.              

Ezra 3:11-13 NIV

God has ascended amid shouts of joy,                     

Psalms 47:5 NIV

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music;                                                                     

Psalms 98:4 NIV

Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals!                                        

Psalms 150:3-5

…the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.                      

2 Samuel 6:15 NIV