Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
Nehemiah 8:6
I can only imagine this dramatic scene of passionate worship recorded in scripture.
When God’s chosen people returned from captivity in Babylon, the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt, the people settled, and then they gathered…to hear God’s law read aloud by Ezra.
Ezra stood above them, and the people were attentive as he taught for hours; from daybreak until noon.
Ezra then praised God.
And the people responded with their hands and their voices.
They “lifted their hands and shouted, ‘Amen! Amen!’”
We can almost hear it, and it resonates as we worship our God in our churches. God’s word is shared and we respond in our heart or out loud, and from the crowd we hear, “Amen! Amen!”
What happened next in the text is not practiced as commonly in our places of worship today. The Israelites “bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.”
I saw a lot of hands lifted high on Sunday, but no one was flat on the ground in worship.
Sometimes when we’re singing praises, I close my eyes to all the distractions and just sing to my God. At other moments, I bow my head and just listen. My heart can be so overwhelmed by His presence and goodness that all I can do is bow before Him.
We may not be literally face down on the floor in worship, but the posture of our hearts can be bowing in reverence to The King.
These verses challenge us to examine the passion of our worship and the posture of our hearts.
The heights of our King most high are best revealed from the position of a heart bowed low before Him.
Get your heart ready and come, worship our King.
