✶ Ps 63:4 ✶
"In the lifting up of hands,
allusion is made to praying and vowing; and [the psalmist] intimates, that besides
giving thanks to God, [they] would acquire additional confidence in
supplication, and be diligent in the exercise of it. Any experience we
may have of the divine goodness, while it stirs us up to gratitude,
should, at the same time, strengthen our hopes of the future, and lead
us confidently to expect that God will perfect the grace which he has
begun."
✶ John Calvin ⁍
I
like the way Calvin moves from the lifting up of hands to the
perfection of the grace begun. To lift one's hands is a sign of
surrender, a sign of giving, and an invitation to weakness—for the
raising of one's arms can't help but sap our strength. This threefold
meaning of the lifting of hands therefore lends itself to the idea of
sanctification—for perfection cannot occur without surrender, without
giving all I have, and without a realization that in my weakness, I will
discover God's strength.
I lift up my hands to you, O God, in prayer, in surrender, in invitation to make you my all in all; in Christ's Name, who taught me to pray: Our Father...
