Links for today’s readings:
Mar 11 Read: Proverbs 30 Listen: (3:51) Read: Psalms 46-47 Listen: (2:15)
Scripture Focus: Psalm 47:1-2
1 Clap your hands, all you nations;
shout to God with cries of joy.
2 For the Lord Most High is awesome,
the great King over all the earth.
Reflection: Hands Are Not for Hitting
By Erin Newton
There is a children’s book titled, Hands Are Not for Hitting. The overall premise is to help teach children that hands can do lots of great things but should not be used for hurting others. My children are too old for that book, but I swear I said, “Hands are not for hitting,” just last week.
As the book tells us, with our hands we can do great things: We can build houses, we can cook food, we can pet a dog, and we can plant tulips. But with our hands we sometimes do horrible things: Hands have slapped faces, hands have assaulted victims, hands have pulled triggers or thrust knives. Like James says of the tongue, with our hands we both curse and praise God.
Some of us might not be familiar with religious services that are more expressive or pentecostal. In such services, clapping and praising God with raised hands is a normal part of the service.
Sometimes hands are used to lay on someone for healing. Hands hold tambourines. Hands reach up to the sky or hold one close to the ground. Hands are for praising. Just like this psalm says.
“Clap your hands.” Why? Because God is the “great King over all the earth.” And the proper response is lifting our hands in jubilant praise.
But we don’t often use our hands well and the world has a lot of different ideas of what we should put our hands to.
We live in turbulent times of conflict and warfare. There are calls to “take up arms” or “lift one’s sword” for other kings (or presidents or supreme leaders, etc.). We are told that the best use of hands is securing power through strength. Meanwhile we’re also at home struggling to teach our youngest minds that “hands are still not for hitting.”
One of my close friends is part of the “peace tradition” (Anabaptist, Brethren) community of Christians. The call to complete nonviolence is a way of life for her. She leans into Jesus’s call for peace and uses her hands in caring, humble, and thoughtful ways.
We are thankful for those, a small percentage, who answer the call to serve their country. However, we should not take up arms to fight our neighbors. We should not use our hands to hurt one another. Hands are for praising.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Bless our God, you peoples; make the voice of his praise to be heard;
Who holds our souls in life, and will not allow our feet to slip. — Psalm 66.7-8
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more: Ever Present Help and Gladdening Streams
Technology is capable of aiding us…May we use technology to tie God’s Word on our hands and integrate it into our lives.
Read more: Inspired Utterance
“Speak your truth” sounds freeing until one person’s truth causes deaths (or war) over a lie.