Each Lord’s Day we come to worship the Lord together, and we do so as people with bodies and souls. We are not floating disembodied spirits, walking brains, nor bags of flesh. We are made up of both body and soul, and so when we worship our God, we want to offer all of ourselves to Him. This is why during our worship services we assume various bodily postures.
But because we want all that we do in worship to be according to Scripture, it would be good to review why we do what we do from time to time. So this morning, I’d like to run through the four basic postures we assume in our worship services and their biblical support.
First, we kneel during our prayer of confession. This is an act of humility and submission. It is not a Roman Catholic thing, but a human thing, and a biblical practice. As Psalm 95:6 reads, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.”
Second, we stand for the reading of God’s Word. This shows honor, respect, and attentiveness. When Ezra opened the Book of the Law to be read before the people, it says they all stood up to receive it (Neh. 8:5, 9:3).
Third, we sit for communion. This is because we are guests seated at our Lord’s Table. As the Gospels record, Jesus sat with His twelve apostles as they ate their final Passover meal (Mt. 26:20, Lk. 22:14–15).
And fourth, we lift our hands during the closing doxology. We do this in unison as a corporate action of praise, rather than as a spontaneous individual expression. We see this action in various psalms, along with Paul’s instructions in 1 Timothy for men to pray lifting up holy hands (Ps. 63:4, 143:6, 1 Tim. 2:8).
By observing these various postures, we are producing within ourselves what we are trying to cultivate, such as humility in confession. And then we are also communicating this outwardly, displaying the posture of our hearts to both men and God.
So with this understanding, may we all now seek to present our whole bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to our God, for this is our spiritual worship (Rom. 12:1).
Shawn Paterson – April 7, 2024
