"Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,
and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice."
As I read this passage this morning for my daily devotional, I wanted to understand this simile more deeply. The psalmist is so generous with image that disciplined research often enriches reading the psalms. My decision to step out of meditation for a moment to do this rewarded me with the following:
"Incense was placed on top of hot coals on the small altar inside the Temple, in front of the curtain that separated the main room from the Holy of Holies [where the symbols of God's presence and action resided with the Israelites]. Both the smoke and the aroma ascended to God, as did the smoke of the sacrifices (animal or grain), placed on the large altar outside the Temple." (New Interpreter's Study Bible)
The thing that caught my eye as I read Psalm 141 today was the link made between prayer and the lifting up of hands. Both of these are compared to the physical acts of worship made by the priests at the Temple: burning incense and sacrifice (whether grain or meat, sacrifices were burned and their aroma and smoke created a multi-sensory cloud that rose to God). It is helpful for me to see prayer in this way, a cloud that rises out of the offering of my life and heart to God.
Yet I don't often see the lifting of my hands in this way. I certainly am a "hands lifter" when it comes to worship, though I only do it when I feel a stirring in my heart. When this happens, often I put my hands forward in a receiving position (palms uplifted) to show my readiness to receive what God is graciously giving to me. Yet the psalmist shows another way, one that stretches back thousands of years: our hands showing the offering of our living sacrifices, our outstretched arms a picture of the cloud that rises to God as we lay our lives and our hearts on the altar before him.
