Bible Questions Answered:
I've seen people on t.v. when they pray, they have their hands up in the air, what is this?
Teresa/ Sydney, Australia
Bible Answer:
Psalm 63:3,4 KJV
3 Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
This was a Jewish custom of praise, and prayer, a custom that Christians, have adopted for themselves.
Clemens of Alexandria A.D. 192 “...raise the head and lift the hands towards heaven.”
Tertullian “We Christians, looking upwards, with hands out spread, because free from guilt; with head bare, because we are not ashamed; ...because we pray from the heart.”
Origen A.D. 230 “...the stretching forth of the hands, and the lifting up of the eyes;...stretches forth his soul towards God, beyond his hands, as it were, and his mind farther than his eyes.”
Eusebius, says of Constantine; that he “had himself depicted on coins “looking up to heaven, and stretching forth his hands like one praying.”
Nehemiah 8:6 KJV
And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
Psalm 28:1,2 KJV
1 I pray to you, O Lord, my Rock. Do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you are silent, I might as well give up and die.
2 Listen to my prayer for mercy as I cry out to you for help, as I lift my hands toward your holy sanctuary.
Psalm 88:9 KJV
"...LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
Psalm 119:48 KJV
My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.
Psalm 134:1-3 KJV
1 Behold, bless ye the LORD, all ye servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of the LORD.
2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.
3 The LORD that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.
Psalm 141:1,2 KJV
1 Lord, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.
2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
Psalm 143:6 KJV
I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.
I Timothy 2:8 KJV (Apostle Paul)
I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
