Physical Worship – Lifting Up
Physical Worship – Lifting Up.
“Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? With eyes wide open to His mercies, here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: I encourage you, as an act of sensible, intelligent worship, to surrender yourselves to God to be His sacred, living sacrifice. Make a decisive dedication of your bodies, presenting all your members and faculties. Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Live in holiness, experiencing all that delights His heart. This offering of the whole of our lives is a worshipful act that is pleasing to God. And this becomes your genuine expression of spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1; a weaving together of The Passion Translation, the Message, Philip’s translation, the Amplified Bible, and the New Jerusalem Bible).
Being Physical with Worship. The spiritual and the physical belong together, and are in fact inseparable. We were created as whole beings with a mysterious fusion of body and spirit and soul and body and everything else that constitutes our personhood. Not only that, the Incarnation reveals how important the body is to Creator God. In a sense, the idea, the reality, of God taking on a physical body was actually a spiritual act. We need to make sure we incarnate our worship. So worship of our Creator needs to include the body if we want to worship with our whole selves. Physical acts of worship become meaningless if it is done thoughtlessly, without its intention of worshipping God. But worship is not limited to the nonphysical, the so-called spiritual either, or one is not truly involved fully in the act of worship. As Rev. Josef Ratzinger once wrote in his excellent article, The Theology of Kneeling, “The bodily gesture itself is the bearer of the spiritual meaning, which is worship. Without the heart of worship, the bodily gesture would be meaningless, while the spiritual act itself must of its very nature express itself in the bodily gestures.” So physical gestures are invaluable in the act of worship. They can point to spiritual truths, they can stimulate worshipful acts, and they can enable a fuller expression of awe, lament, adoration and worship. Using the body helps us to put the Gospel message into motion. The movement of one’s body can be a sign that communicates a message… Do you want to signal to God that you submit to Him, that you want to confess to Him, that you adore Him, that you intend to follow Him in trust? There are gestures and postures and movements that can express what is on your heart without any use of words. Body language is vital to spiritual life and expression. In this blog series entitled “Physical Worship,” I will focus on the worshipful use of the body through such gestures and movements as: prostration before God; sitting at the feet of Jesus; standing in respect and oneness; kneeling in submission; walking in order to follow; running the good race; jumping for joy; lifting up the heart and hands; offering the kiss of peace;; and the act of crossing oneself with the sign of the Cross. This is important: Physical postures and actions during worship reflect the attitudes of the heart, but they can also help produce the attitudes of the heart.
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and His train filled the Temple. Above Him stood the seraphim; each had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:1-3).
The physical movement of lifting up is a dominant theme of worship in the Scripture. We may be earthbound at this point in history, but of course God has never been. So we lift up everything about who we are to worship God in Heaven, where He dwells in glory and majesty. This brings to mind one of our Father’s names in the Hebrew Bible… El-Elyon, God Most High. El is the shortened version of Elohim, the Hebrew generic name for God. Elyon means most high, uppermost, supreme to all creation. The name of God is elevated when referenced as Elyon, highly exalted, majestic, holding supremacy in the universe. Elyon is the only legitimate One that we could truly say is “above it all.” And amazingly, in the midst of His Lordship, Elyon desires our friendship. Elyon is a God who exists in the highest realms, but is willing to stoop to the lowest. He is somehow meek in His exaltation. He is out of our reach, but He is pleased to come within our reach. The compound name El-Elyon appears in the Hebrew Bible twelve times. An example is Psalm 78:35: “They remembered that God was their Rock, their El-Elyon, their Redeemer.” The name Elyon is found in the Hebrew Bible 34 times, frequently in the Psalms. A particularly poetic appearance of Elyon is in 2 Samuel 22:14, “Yahweh thundered, Elyon uttered His voice.”
So we naturally lift our hearts to Him because we accept the fact that the Lord is the uppermost Sovereign, the King of Kings. We lift up our hands to God in worship because He is the Royal Majesty on His heavenly throne, and we are His loyal subjects. We lift up our voices to Yahweh because we intend to express our love for Him who lives in a high and holy place and yet reaches down to us. We lift up our eyes to God, because we want to focus completely on the Lord, who from the highest height offers us hope and healing. We lift up our very souls to God because He is the Holy One who is the high and lofty One, who lives in a high and lofty place. We lift up our heads to the Father because we joyfully and gratefully realize we are children of the Most High.
(1.) Lift Up Your Hearts! “Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven.” (Lamentations 3:41). To the Hebrew way of thinking, the heart, the “lebab,” was the center of just about everything in a person. It was considered the body’s most interior organ, the deepest part of the person. The heart was the center of the inner life, the spiritual life, one’s character and will and emotion. The heart was the source of one’s personality, as well as the place where the most profound spiritual thinking occurred. When we lift our hearts to God, we are offering to God the deepest part of ourselves. We are giving to God the whole of who we are in our inward parts for His healing, His mercy. When we lift our hearts to God, we are asking Him to continue sanctifying us, continuing the process of transformation at the heart level. When we lift our hearts to God, we are declaring to the Lord that we do not want to be earthbound, but instead we desire to worship Him in the company of the angels and the clouds of witnesses above. When we lift our hearts to God, we are elevating who we are to Who He is. It’s no wonder that these particular words have been introducing worship in churches since the 3rd century. The worship leader would entreat the worshippers, “Let us lift our hearts to God!” And the people would respond, “Yes, we lift them to the Lord!” The early church had two other ways of saying it… “Up with your hearts!” the leader would say. Or a different leader might say simply, “Hearts up!” Yes, may this be our daily confession, “Yes! Up with our hearts! Hearts up, everyone!”
(2.) Lift Up Your Hands! “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord! The Lord who made heaven and earth bless you out of Zion!” (Psalm 134). A common prayer gesture in ancient Israel was the lifting up of hands. The Hebrew Bible is full of references to the raising of hands in worship. An interesting picture of the importance of this gesture is in Exodus 17, when Moses was on the hill, overlooking the fierce battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites soon after starting their journey in the wilderness. As long as Moses could be seen by the troops with his arms and hands raised, they would take the advantage. If Moses’ arms started to lower in fatigue, the Israelites would begin to lose heart. Many believe that Moses was raising his arms in prayer and worship. As long as he was interceding for the Israelites and praising Yahweh, God was enabling the Hebrews to be victorious. Moses here is a clear picture of a prayer warrior, a leader engaging in intercessory prayer and adoration. This tradition of lifted hands during worship has carried right through to many contemporary churches. To raise one’s hands in prayer implies celebration, adoration, submission, and confessing an ardent praise of God on high. Throughout the psalms. “In your Name I will lift up my hands.” (Ps. 63:4); “May the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.” (Ps. 141:2); “Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift my hands toward your Most Holy Place.” (Ps. 28:2); “I spread my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.” (Ps. 143:6). We are implored throughout Scripture to lift up holy hands, raise our hands to God Most High, stretch out our hands heavenward, extend the palms upward in adoration and worship.
(3.) Lift Up Your Voice! “And being let go, Peter and John went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they lifted up their voices to God with one accord and said, “Lord You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them..” (Acts 4:23-24). “Sing to God, sing praises to His Name; Extol Him who rides on the clouds, by His Name Yah, and rejoice before Him!” (Psalm 68:4). The Hebrew word for voice is usually “kovlech,” which means to call aloud, to loudly use one’s voice with power. Much of the time in worship, the believers raised their voices to sing with gusto and exuberance. “Lift up your voice like a trumpet!” (Isaiah 58:1). Many of the references are to simply use your voice to sing praises to His Name (Ps. 68:4). “Let my mouth be filled with your praise and with your glory all the day!” (Ps. 71:8). Jeremiah talked about a redemption of voice in the Kingdom in Jer. 33:11: “… The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will sing, ‘Praise the Lord of Hosts, for the Lord is good, and His mercy endures forever!” On the other hand, there is another way to use one’s voice in worship, and it seems more or less commanded in Scripture… Shout! The Hebrew word is “ruwa,” and it means to raise a joyous shout; to split the ears with sound; to offer a joyful noise; to cry aloud at the top of your lungs. Ruwa is the word that is used when the Israelites were instructed to bring down the walls of Jericho (Josh. 6:5). In other words, there are a variety of ways we can lift up our voices in worship. Singing fervently and passionately to the Lord and with other believers is only one way. “Make a joyful shout to God, all the peoples of the earth! Sing out loudly to the honor of His Name. Make His praise glorious! Say to God, ‘How awesome are your works! Through the greatness of your power, your enemies shall submit themselves to you. All the earth shall worship you and say praises to you! They shall sing praises to your Name!” (Ps. 66:1-4). So let us lift up our voices, O children of the Most High! Join with the angels and archangels in heaven as they shout and sing around the throne. “Make a joyful shout to the Lord Yahweh, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God!” (Psalm 100:1-2).
(4.) Lift Up Your Eyes! “Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to Yahweh our God, until He has mercy on us.” (Psalm 123:1-2). It’s human nature to be led by our eyes. We tend to think about whatever we are looking at. Our eyes determine what gets our attention. If we look often enough at something, it may even determine our life direction, it may become the driving force of our life. Our eyes direct us to our destiny. If ever there was an era in history in which focus is difficult and life-altering, it is now. There are countless alluring distractions that can keep us earthbound and not heavenward: entertainments galore, pornography, selfish ambition and all matters of self-gratification, and about a hundred other temptations directed at our eyes. If we keep our eyes down, then we soon become ignorant of God’s presence, and instead focus on our selfish needs, our changeable circumstances, the approval of others. If we are earthbound regarding where we look for help, we can look with futility at political leadership, military, diplomacy, the government. Throughout Scripture we are instructed to lift our eyes to the Lord, to make Him the center of our focus, the reference point that gives life meaning and purpose. Here again, our focus can shape our very life. If we aren’t careful, it would be far too easy for us to fall into a spiral of spiritual blindness, unaware of life’s emptiness without God. Unlike what the world’s wisdom tells us, the more earthbound one’s gaze is, the narrower our awareness to the important things in life. And the more heavenward one’s gaze, the greater our awareness of that which makes life fruitful and satisfying and fulfilling. A godly vision in life only comes to those who look to God. The gospel fulfillment of the psalmist’s wisdom is the command to “fix our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2), to focus on Christ at the right hand of God in the heavenly realms, and to His Spirit within us. We naturally look to the written Word when we fix our eyes on the living Word. “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from your teachings, the miraculous truths in your Word.” (Ps. 119:18). Raising our vision will actually save our life. “To whom can you compare Me or who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look!” (Isaiah 40:25-26). “To you, Lord Yahweh, I turn my eyes; in You I take refuge; Do not leave me unprotected.” (Ps. 141:8). “Fix your eyes on the Lord, and your face will be radiant, and you need not hang your head in shame.” (Ps. 34:5). “Permanently my eyes are upon Yahweh, for He will rescue me from the traps of my enemies.” (Ps. 25:15.). The pilgrim to Jerusalem during a Feast knew where to look: “When I look up to the mountains and hills, does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord Yahweh, our Creator who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to stumble. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who is the Guardian of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” (Ps. 121:1-4). This classic song of Ascent is the reflection of a believer looking upon the peaks of Mt. Hermon, and reminding himself as he gazes at the mountains of the solidity, permanence and safety of Lord Yahweh, that God is even more stable and faithful than those ancient mountains. Mt. Hermon was surely a source of many inspirations just like that through its history, a way of picturing the sure mercies of the Lord on their pilgrimage of faith, a way of looking up to the Creator of those mountains. “My eyes look to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from Yahweh the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2). I have an ancient family heirloom, a little wooden plaque, that sums up the wisdom of the ages… Keep Looking Up. Words to the wise.
(5.) Lift Up Your Soul! “Make the soul of your servant glad; For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul! For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.” (Psalm 86:4-5). the Hebrew word for soul is “nefresh,” and can be described in many ways. To lift up one’s soul is to offer to God one’s very life; one’s complete and essential self; one’s life breath; one’s personhood and “me-ness;” one’s personal existence; the eternal part of one’s being. The soul does not refer to one specific part of a person, such as the heart or emotion or intellect, because Scripture considers a person to be an indivisible composite of a whole being.
There was a sappy romantic song that was popular way, way back in the day. The singer earnestly sang out “All of me! Take all of me!” Even though that sounds a bit corny, that’s pretty much what David and the psalmists sing out to the Lord when they lift up their soul to God. They are saying to God… I offer all I have to you, Lord. I will hold nothing back. Receive all of who I am as I lift my soul up to you. Accept my very existence, my life breath, as a sacrifice, God, for I trust in your mercy and power and wisdom. “Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You.” (Psalm 143:8).
The hymnwriter Frances Havergal seemed to be reading the minds of these psalmists in the classic meditation put to music… “Take my life and let it be, consecrated, Lord, to thee; Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of thy love; Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for thee. Take my voice, and let me sing, always, only for my King; Take my intellect, and use every power as thou shalt choose. Take my will, and make it thine; It shall be no longer mine. Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for thee.” (1874).
There is a powerful example of what some believers do as they express that they want to lift all of their self up to the Lord, they want to worship God for His holiness as they offer themselves to Him. When Isaiah 6:1-3 is read in the daily liturgy of the synagogue… “In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the Temple. Above the throne stood seraphim, each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” it is traditional to stand on tiptoe and stretch upward three times, “as though they were rising up to grasp at the unreachable holiness of God.” (Rabbi Arthur Green). As these believing Jewish worshipers look up to the heavens with all their bodies and offer themselves, they recognize the pure holiness of God. They want all of themselves to look up in worship.
Closing with a wonderful word from the biblical scholar Dr. Skip Moen: “The prayer of lifting up my soul is the transforming prayer that converts who I am into a living sacrifice. My very breathing becomes a prayer. The end of prayer is not the moment when I rise from my knees. It is the moment when I stop breathing. As long as He grants me breath, I will lift up myself to Him.”
“To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in you; Let me not be ashamed…Guard my soul and deliver me; Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You.” (Psalm 25:1, 20, 21).
Christ is Lower Still (featuring DOE and Matt Maher) – YouTube