Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven and say,
Parallel translations
- WEB Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
- KJV Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
- BSB Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:
- NKJV Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven.
- NASB We raise our heart and hands Toward God in heaven;
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
True repentance lifts up the heart, not merely the hands, to God in heaven.
Overview
Prayer with raised hands must be matched by a raised heart, that is, sincere inward devotion and not mere outward ritual. The verse guards against hypocrisy in worship and seeks God where He dwells. It echoes the consistent biblical demand for heart-religion fulfilled in worship 'in spirit and truth' (John 4:24; Ps. 86:4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ps 25:1By David. To you, Yahweh, do I lift up my soul.
- Ps 28:2Hear the voice of my petitions, when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.
- Ps 86:4Bring joy to the soul of your servant, for to you, Lord, do I lift up my soul.
- Ps 143:6–8I spread out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Selah.
- Ps 63:4So I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name.
- Ps 141:2Let my prayer be set before you like incense; the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.
- 1 Th 2:8Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not the Good News of God only, but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 3:41 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.