Raised hands

I just have to share one more picture from our evening kayak trip…

I’ve been reading through the Bible this year - which incidentally has been such an immense blessing and encouragement to me – and I’ve had the privilege of making a pretty lengthy stop in the book of Psalms for the past few weeks.  It’s one of my favorite books of the Bible, mainly because of the depth and gamut of emotions that you see from the authors throughout the chapters and verses.  In a single chapter, you can see the raw emotion of fear and disappointment and then just a few verses later, the author is praising God with pure joy.

Anyway, as we were kayaking down the river and I was following Joel, I got this image in my mind of him with his arms outstretched in a posture of surrender and/or praise.  It was such a peaceful, tranquil setting in which we were completely surrounded by God’s creation, that I knew it would be the perfect picture.  And since I love to accompany my pictures of creation with verses of Scripture, I assumed I’d be able to find something in the book of Psalms that would appropriately speak to the moment.

Sure enough, that very next day as I was reading my assigned passages for the day, I came upon Psalms 63:4-5…

I will honor you as long as I live,

lifting up my hands to you in prayer.

You satisfy me more than the richest of foods.

I will praise you with songs of joy.

Perfect words to go with the picture I saw in my mind and ultimately the one I was able to capture that night on the river.  I love the posture of hands raised in praise to the one who really does satisfy me.  I also love the peace that comes from surrendering my fears and concerns to him.  My prayer is that I truly will honor him as long as I live!