Should we raise our hands/clap our hands during worship?

And now we see prophetically how the redeemed people clap their hands and shout unto God with the voice of triumph, for Messiah is King and then they sing praises unto the King, for He is King over all the earth and highly exalted. Every knee must bow and every tongue confess.

The words of this section are put into the lips of Israel in view of their millennial blessing. They bid all peoples to clap their hands in approval of God's goodness to Israel, to shout to God with the voice of triumph. Nor is there any doubt as to the significance of the name of God, for He is called "The Most High" and "a great King over all the earth" (v. 2), perfectly descriptive of the glory of the Lord Jesus in the Millennium.

These "peoples;" then; are exhorted at the beginning (in an anticipative way, characteristic of the beginnings of psalms, as we have seen) to clap their hands and shout unto God with a voice of triumph: for Jehovah, now manifestly the Supreme; is to be feared — with no slavish fear, as the words preceding show: He is a great King over all the earth.

But the song of triumph swells again, and in the beginning of Psalm 47, the result of God's intervention is celebrated. "Oh clap your hands, all ye people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For Jehovah most high is terrible; He is a great King over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom He loved." And again, in the following Psalm — "Let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad because of Thy judgments. Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following" (Ps. 48:11-13). Here, then, we have Israel's latter history. First, she is seen in terrible affliction and oppression, but looking to God as her refuge. He comes in and stays the turmoil of the peoples by judgment, subduing them under her, establishing His own dominion, and exalting Zion and Jerusalem.

But other nations are deeply concerned in all this. Dynasties may rise and fall, and neighbouring nations be little affected thereby. But it is not so, it cannot be so, when God takes to Himself His power and reigns. Absolute in will, He has declared beforehand the establishment of His kingdom (Ps. 2:6), and announces (46:10) His exaltation over all powers on earth. All peoples are therefore (47) called upon to welcome Him with acclamation. "O clap your hands, all ye peoples, shout to God with the voice of triumph: for Jehovah Most High is terrible, a great King over all the earth." To Israel will He give pre-eminence, subduing the nations under their feet, and choosing out an inheritance for them — even the excellency of Jacob — i.e. Jerusalem (Isa 60:15) — "whom He loved." To it, the place of His earthly throne, He has gone up with a shout, with the sound of a trumpet, for He is Israel's King (6), King over all the earth as well (7), reigning over Gentiles, and sitting upon the throne of His holiness. In the preceding Psalm God is said to be in the midst of Jerusalem, so He will help her. In 47 He is set forth as enthroned in her, and as receiving the homage of nations, who own Him as the King, and now acknowledge Israel as His people, the princes of nations gathering to them as the people of the God of Abraham.

Then when you come to the second book, from the forty-second on, we cannot speak in detail as we have been doing, but I want you to notice how different the thought is. Here you have the people away from God, and yet, sighing and crying for Him. The forty-second and forty-third give us that sense of distance, and the presence of the enemy. Then in the forty-fourth, you have the actual persecution: "Yea for Thy sake we are killed all the day long"; and then when they are at the lowest point, when they have told out all the sorrows of their condition, the forty-fifth begins with a song of love. The forty-fourth a song of man's hatred and persecution, the forty-fifth, the song of God's love in Christ: "My heart is inditing a good matter, I speak of the things that I have made touching the King." He is coming to His poor afflicted people in their distance under the hand of the enemy, the King that takes vengeance on their enemies, and delivers His saints. As a result in the forty-sixth we see, "God is our refuge and strength." In the forty-fourth they are "accounted as sheep for the slaughter," in the forty-sixth they are looking up with confidence to God as their refuge and strength. What is the secret of it? He who is fairer than all the sons of men has come in to succor, and the sense of that makes God their refuge and strength. The forty-seventh gives us the joy, "Clap your hands all ye people," and the forty-eighth is Mount Zion, the joy of the whole earth. Instead of a scattered afflicted people under the oppression of the enemy, you have Mount Zion with her bulwarks and surrounded by her walls — God known in her palaces for a refuge. It is all because of that blessed One who, for the sake of His beloved people, has girded His sword. upon His thigh and gone forth to conquer their oppressors. How beautifully the Psalms are thus grouped together.

It is a great privilege to be called to serve the Lord in these dark days. We are poor feeble folk indeed if we measure ourselves by the great men before us. If we read Hebrews 11 how small we feel, yet we are, at the end of this dispensation, called upon to stand for the interests of Christ just before He comes again, called to keep the light burning, and in the sanctuary to lift up our hands, giving praise and worship to Him. “Behold, bless ye the Lord all ye servants of the Lord which by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.” Oh, how rich the praise that goes from our hearts when Christ is the Object of all.

It is a great privilege to be called to serve the Lord in these dark days. We are poor feeble folk indeed if we measure ourselves by the great men before us. If we read Hebrews 11 how small we feel, yet we are, at the end of this dispensation, called upon to stand for the interests of Christ just before He comes again, called to keep the light burning, and in the sanctuary to lift up our hands, giving praise and worship to Him. "Behold, bless ye the Lord all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord." Oh, how rich the praise that goes from our hearts when Christ is the Object of all.

At the conclusion of Ezra's prayer, or thanksgiving, "all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground." (v. 6.) It is a striking scene, for the Lord was working on the hearts of His people with power, and hence it was that their very attitude expressed their hallowed reverence.* They stood while Ezra prayed, and then, together with their responses of "Amen, Amen," with uplifted hands, they worshipped with their faces to the ground.

*In a state of spiritual barrenness and declension the people of God, it may often be noticed, assume positions of bodily ease during praise or prayer; but the moment there is the display of the Spirit's power all this is changed, and those who are most under His influence will immediately adopt the posture (either kneeling or standing) which most exhibits what is suited to the presence of God.

There is evidence of sincerity in his earnest supplication, crying to the Lord in his distress, lifting up his hands toward God's holy sanctuary. We read in 1 Timothy 2:8 that in the Assembly today men are to lift up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. This is more than simply literally lifting up the hands, but having a character that is expressed in works of holiness, for if our hands are stained by questionable works, our prayers will also be badly affected. If one prays publicly and his works are known to be bad, how can anyone have confidence in his prayers? Similarly, in praying toward God's holy sanctuary, a sense of God's holiness should certainly be impressed on our souls, so that our prayers should be without hypocrisy.