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Lift up your hands to the sanctuary And bless the Lord.
Psalms 134:2 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB Lift up your hands in the sanctuary. Praise Yahweh!
  • KJV Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.
  • BSB Lift up your hands to the sanctuary and bless the LORD!
  • NKJV Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, And bless the Lord.
  • NLT Lift your hands toward the sanctuary, and praise the Lord.

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

They are to lift their hands in the sanctuary and praise Yahweh. It calls for wholehearted, reverent worship directed to God.

Overview

The servants are told to lift up their hands toward the holy place and bless the Lord, a posture of dependence and devotion. Worship engages the whole person toward God. Believers now offer such praise through Christ, lifting holy hands in His name.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 8

  • Ps 28:2Hear the voice of my petitions, when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.
  • 1 Tim 2:8I desire therefore that the men in every place pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and doubting.
  • 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.
  • Lam 3:41Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
  • Lam 2:19Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord: Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.
  • Ps 26:6I will wash my hands in innocence, so I will go about your altar, Yahweh;
  • Ps 63:2So I have seen you in the sanctuary, watching your power and your glory.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 134:2YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.

How Psalms 134:2 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.