Psalm 134

Psalm 134:2

“Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord!” 

            I am going to confess a personal character flaw about myself.  I know it’s a flaw, I know it’s stupid, but I just cannot seem to help it.  Whenever I am in a worship setting and I see someone raising their hands as they sing along with the music, it drives me absolutely nuts!  Now maybe this is because of my very traditional, conservative background that pretty much implied there were to be no emotions as part of the worship service.  The church I grew up in, which I love and am not faulting, but they said the words with reverence, they sang with a gentleness, and there was not much if any smiling, clapping, or raising hands.  So when I go to more contemporary style worship services, which I do enjoy, with more upbeat music, and much more emotions as people are clapping, swaying back and forth with the music, and yes the dreaded hand raising, it seems simply disrespectful to me.  It gets under my skin, it distracts me, and all of a sudden, I am no longer worshiping because I am so focused on that person holding their hand up.  My ego, pride, or arrogance, whichever or possibly all three working together, try to convince me that they are only raising their hands so other people will look at them and think they are “better” worshipers than everyone else.   As you can probably tell, this truly is a pet peeve of mine. 
            So it is with full conviction and shame that I read these words of Psalm 134.  I am burdened down to my core, as I realize God’s Word itself tells us to raise our hands to the holy place as we bless Him.  Now does this mean this Sunday, you will see me with my hands raised high during one of the hymns? Probably not!  What it does mean is that I realize raising your hand is a perfectly fine way to worship God.  What it means is that I need to get over my own flaws and judgments, and not let that style of worship distract me from worshiping God myself.  Rather than using all of my energy to try to guess why they think it is necessary to raise their hand, I should use that energy to realize I too am supposed to be praising God.  Instead of being filled with hate and anger when I see someone raising their hands during a song, I should be reminded that we are all there to worship and praise the same God.  I should be encouraged to be excited, to smile, to sing louder, and to genuinely give God my heart-filled thanks and praise for the good news of the Gospel in His Son Jesus Christ. 
            For you maybe it is not someone raising their hands.  Maybe for you it is the crying kid in the back that you wish the parents would take out.  Maybe for you it is the teenage kids snickering at each other’s doodles. Whatever it is that the Devil uses to distract you from genuinely worshiping God, let me use this psalm and remind you to stop worrying about everyone else, and focus on yourself faithfully praising God.  Stop letting your own personal likes or dislikes influence you to judge others around you.  Most likely, the other people who are “distracting” you with their worship habits are much more genuine in their praise then you are at the moment.  God tells us to use instruments of all kinds to praise Him.  Here God tells us to raise our hands as we bless Him.  He doesn’t care near as much about how we worship Him as He does that we are genuine and faithful in our worship.  Think about it!  He sent His Son to DIE for YOU!  He raised His Son from the DEAD to be YOUR living King!  He FORGIVES YOU of YOUR sins.  He gives you SALVATION and ETERNAL LIFE freely through Jesus Christ.  This is the good news you are hearing, this is the reason you are thanking, praising, and worshiping Him. It’s OK to show emotion, it’s OK to dance, clap, and celebrate that good news.  And yes, His Word even tells us it is OK to hold your hands up high when blessing Him.  The point is to bless the Lord, for He is good!