“Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument.”
This verse is a good transition from the verses that came before to the points Paul wants to make next. He is continuing with his instructions on prayer, but he is now moving on to instructions for men and women. He will begin with this exhortation on prayer.
Paul begins with the word “therefore.” We always must ask, “what is it there for?” What is the “therefore” referring to? We must go back to verse 1 where Paul is urging that “petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those who are in authority…” Why do we do this? In verses 3 and 4, Paul goes on to write, “This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
Paul writes, “I want the men in every place to pray…” David Guzik writes this in his Enduring Word online commentary. “This has the idea of ‘In every church,’ and not of ‘In every place.’ Paul’s focus is on what the church does when it comes together for meetings.” This is supported when we read further in the letter. We will see how women are to dress and act in church and the qualifications of elders and deacons.
He calls for them to pray “lifting up holy hands…” The lifting of hands was a common posture of prayer, especially in the Old Testament. Adding “holy” in front of the word “hands” symbolizes living in accordance with God’s standards. There are several Psalms that address this:
So I will bless you as long as I live;
at your name, I will lift up my hands. (63:4)
I will lift up my hands to your commands,
which I love,
and will meditate on your statutes. (119:48)
Listen to the sound of my pleading
when I cry to you for help,
when I lift up my hands
toward your holy sanctuary. (28:2)
In our western culture, our common posture for prayer is to bow our heads and close our eyes. I am sure that this is to minimize outside distractions because I did not find it described anywhere in the Bible. I was curious as to what postures for prayer were described in the Bible and I found this helpful website (Biola University’s The Good Book Blog: “Prayer Postures in the Bible). Here are some of those postures.
The lifting up of one’s hands seems to be the most common, but lifting one’s eyes upward is also found. One of my favorite Psalms is 121. “I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (vv. 1-2). Jesus also prayed this way. When he fed the five thousand, “He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves” (Mark 6:41, see also Luke 9:16). In John 14:21, we see “Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you heard me’” before he raised Lazarus from the dead. And in John 17:1, in Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, he begins by looking up to heaven.
Kneeling is another way we see people pray in both the Old and New Testament. In 2 Chronicles 6, Solomon kneels and raises his hand as he dedicates the newly built temple to God. Ezra falls to his knees, spreads his hands before God and confesses Israel’s sins (Ezra 9). In Psalm 95: 6 we read, “Come, let’s worship and bow down; let’s kneel before the Lord our Maker.” Jesus knelt in prayer in the garden before his crucifixion (Luke 22:41). In Acts, we read this account of Peter praying for a faithful disciple, Tabatha, who had died. “Peter sent them all out of the room. He knelt down, prayed, and turning toward the body said, ‘Tabitha, get up.’ She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up” (Acts 9:40).
I have already used the Psalm “Come let us worship and bow down…” Bowing is the next posture of prayer we read about in the Bible. “Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped” (Exodus 34:8) after God showed him His glory. After Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal, he “…went up to the summit of Carmel. He bent down on the ground and put his face between his knees” (1 Kings 18:42). When Ezra read to the people from the book of the law of Moses, “…with their hands uplifted all the people said, ‘Amen, Amen!’ Then they knelt low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground” (Nehemiah 8:6).
Lastly, for this list, since there are probably other postures that I have missed, is prostrate on your face. We first see this in Genesis 17:3 with Abraham when God sets up His covenant with him. “Then Abram fell facedown and God spoke with him.” Joshua and the elders of Israel fall face down before God after they are defeated in battle (Joshua 7). We can see the depth of Jesus’ despair in the Garden of Gethsemane when we read, “Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will’” (Matthew 26:39). The last example is John in the Book of Revelation. When he sees Jesus, this is what it says. “When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me and said, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last,and the Living One. I was dead, but look—I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades’” (vv. 17-18).
I took a lot of time going over verses that describe postures of prayer. But more important than the posture is the attitude or emotion behind them. As I was looking at the verses, I saw gratitude, concern, joy, sorrow, repentance, confession, awe, amazement, broken heartedness, and so many more emotions I couldn’t name. The outward display flows from the inward expression. God wants us to express our joys, our sorrows, to confess our sins, and to bring Him our everyday concerns. I found it interesting to see all the different postures of prayer recorded in Scripture. There is no formula recorded, and folding your hands, bowing your head, and closing your eyes is certainly not required! I think this quote from gotquestions.org expresses my thoughts perfectly. “While physical representations of worship are important, and our entire being should be engaged in worship of God, the posture of our hearts is of more importance than the position of our bodies.”
The last phrase in today’s verse is “…without anger or argument.” There is certainly precedence for this in Jesus’ instructions on prayer. “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing” (Mark 11:25). Duane Litfin, in his commentary 1 Timothy, writes that to have effective prayer, in addition to living a holy life (holy hands), one needs to be without anger. “A person who is constantly having trouble with other believers, who is a troublemaker rather than a peacemaker, cannot pray and get answers from God.”
I will end with this Psalm.
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who has not appealed to what is false,
and who has not sworn deceitfully.
He will receive blessing from the Lord,
and righteousness from the God of his salvation. (24:4-5)
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 