Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — not Entertainment
In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas
But is lifting hands to worship the Lord necessārius or dubius?
“In necessities unity. In uncertainties, Liberty. In all things, Charity.”
Has been doing the rounds for centuries. The concept is creditable but the fatal human flaw is the piles of necessities and uncertainties are neither universal nor constant. Churches have split and feuds begun. They change with the wind. My sister, once when visiting a church, was told that if she and her husband did not drop their hands during worship they would have to leave.
I have been worshipping at a Reformed Church for the past few years. One of the congregation told me he would rather die than lift his hands to worship God. Why? Because that’s what Pentecostals do. When he was told that the action was commanded at least twice in the Scriptures, desired by Paul several more times, and mentioned at least a dozen times, his reply was, “It’s just not what we do.”
Andrea Chelle , fellow Mediumite publishing on Koinonia, wrote a very good piece on this topic that can’t be improved on so you can read it here.
It is hoped, however, that this Hebrew perspective on Praising God will lift the bar even higher.
Hebrew is an earthy and graphic language utilising pictograms as well as sounds. For example, the word for ‘hand’ is a single character, yod, which looks like holding your right hand in front of you.
We know that when Leah delivered her fourth son she named him Judah (Yĕhuwdah, there is no English jarring ‘J’ sound in Hebrew), meaning “praise”. His name begins with the letter yod. We also know that a Name of the Lord is Yehovah (yod-hey-vav-hey, Yĕhovah, there is no English wobbly ‘W’ sound in Hebrew) which begins with the same Hebrew letter. It turns out that the pictogram behind yod is ‘the right hand where Sovereignty and Power lie.’
Rabbinical perspective
My Jewish consultants tell me that the rabbinical concept of Praising God is one of a divine, personal, reciprocal, transaction. Devout Hebrews do not merely say a praise, they lift a praise. Yĕhuwdah is the sacrifice of praise lifted in the hands of the People of God to God (both hands because you should not give a titchy little gift). Yĕhovah reaches down with His Hand (Yod Hashem, the Hand of God) to accept that praise. He responds by reaching down with his Right Hand to give His Children the gift of blessings as we reach up with both hands to receive those blessings as they come back (He’s not a titchy giver). And it becomes a cyclic, personal transaction between the Lord and His Child that may go on for some time. This time is when God does His best work. Forget the sermon. There’s real business going on here. And when the pattern is right, the Glory falls.
This whole process adds a new hue to the Lord inhabiting the praises of His People.
As New Testament Saints we are commanded to continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise — the fruit of our lips that openly profess and praise His Name. In the Biblical culture it would be an insult for the Saint not to offer a gift, and also an insult not to accept the Gift He presents back to us.
The choice is yours but I’m not going to let any stones out-praise me.
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
