Prayer and Posture
When I was a student at Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY I discovered a few small prayer rooms in two different buildings. These quiet, dedicated spaces were furnished with prayer benches. It was my first opportunity to see one up close and try it on for size. If you’re unfamiliar, a prayer bench is like a short desk at which you kneel on a soft kneeling pad, and lean on the top which typically holds a Bible. These are also called “prayer desks.”
At that point in my life I hadn’t given much thought to posture in prayer. And the image of a man on his knees with folded hands struck me as something between quaint and cringe. But my time in those little prayer rooms, kneeling on those little benches, got me thinking. Why have Christians, throughout the centuries, in different cultures and traditions, raised their hands or bowed their heads in prayer? Have we forgotten a value or forsaken a virtue?
I’ve observed that most baptists don’t speak much about posture in prayer. We pray, fervently even, but we don’t do a lot of kneeling. We don’t use prayer benches, and we definitely don’t have “kneelers” that fold down from our pews so we can get to our knees for the prayer of confession. Of course there are times when we lay prostrate or kneel, but those moments are typically private and occasional, not frequent and regular.
My aim in this article is not to compel you to kneel whenever you pray. I want to encourage you to rediscover the value of posture in prayer, and to use it as a means of expressing and exciting the affections of your heart.
THE POSTURE OF THE HEART
When Herman Witsius wrote on the subject of posture (or “gestures”), he was careful to explain that “these are of far less importance to the value of prayer than a holy preparation of mind.”* In fact, every theologian I have read on the subject makes this very important point.
Scripture emphasizes the posture of the heart in prayer by calling us to approach God with sincerity, faith, reverence and awe, humility, godly sorrow, and holy confidence (Heb. 11:6; 12:28; 2 Chron. 7:14; Luke 18:13–14; Heb. 4:16). Our posture doesn’t prove the sincerity of our prayers. In fact when our hearts are wrong our good posture condemns us for our hypocrisy. God confronted his people over this when he said through the prophet Isaiah, “this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men” (Isaiah 29:13).
It’s also worth noting that because the Apostle Paul calls us to pray without ceasing and in all circumstances (1 Thess. 5:17, 18), that there cannot be a wrong posture for praying. Isaac Watts made this point, saying, “while we lie in our beds, while we sit at our tables, or are taking our rest in any methods of refreshment, our souls may go out towards our Heavenly Father, and have sweet converse with him in short prayers.”* Your posture can’t determine the health of your prayer, but your heart can.
A bowed spirit is more important than bent knees. But this doesn’t make our posture irrelevant.
THE POSTURE OF THE BODY
After Witsius rightly prioritized the posture of the heart, he also argued that everything we do with our bodies, including when we pray, matters because we belong to God, body and soul, and are called to glorify God with both (1 Cor. 6:20). He said, “But ordinary, stated prayers, whether private, social, or public, require those postures which are fitted to excite and express humility, reverence, hope, ardour, and other affections of the mind.”
What we do with our bodies when we pray can reflect and reinforce what is happening in our hearts. While particular expressions will vary depending on time, place, and culture, we are guided by Scripture with numerous examples of prayer expressed with bowed heads, bent knees, and outstretched arms.
Every day I call upon you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you.
Psalm 88:9
In commenting on Psalm 88:9 David Dickson said that the gestures of the body “have their own speech unto God, no less than the words of the mouth have; as here, I have stretched out my hands unto thee, is brought forth to express his submissive rendering up of himself unto God, and his dependence upon him.”*
THE POSTURE’S MESSAGE
The posture we take in prayer can say something about our frame of mind or the condition of our heart. While this isn’t always the case, and in some circumstances posture simply cannot express the heart, when appropriate the following physical expressions can complement and enrich our prayers.
KNEELING
And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.
Acts 20:36
Kneeling in prayer reflects humility and submission. The one who kneels before God understands his or her place before the Lord. We are creatures who are made by and for our Creator. We are subjects of our King who confess Jesus is Lord.
Daniel and Jesus both give us examples of kneeling in prayer (Dan. 6:10; Lk. 22:41).
STANDING
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
Mark 11:25
Witsius said standing as we pray can demonstrate “reverence and readiness.” It reflects a holy confidence and readiness of heart that is eager to obey the Lord. We delight in God’s will and desire to be doers of the word, and not hearers only.
Note that in Jesus’ parable of The Pharisee and the Tax Collector both men are standing as they pray, but with radically different hearts (Luke 18:11, 13).
SITTING
Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, “Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?”
1 Chronicles 17:16
To sit before God in prayer is a sign that we have fellowship with God and may freely commune with him. We can appear before the Lord, rest, express our hearts, and listen to him as we meditate on his word.
Jesus implicitly speaks to this posture when addressing the church in Laodicea, saying, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20).”
RAISED HANDS
Every day I call upon you, O LORD;I spread out my hands to you.
Psalm 88:9
The raising of hands in prayer has long been an expression of reaching out toward God, lifting our supplications to him in dependence on his generosity. This is traditionally done with arms extended and palms up as a picture of our readiness to receive from God what we ask.
Paul wrote to Timothy, urging “that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling” ( 1 Timothy 2:8).”
LIFTED EYES
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1–2
To lift our eyes upward shows a heart posture of hope. We look to the Lord, seeking and eagerly anticipating his help. The puritan pastor William Gouge wrote that our eyes lifted heavenward “giveth evidence of our expectation of helpe from above: and of our faith fixed on him who is in heaven.”*
We have examples of this in the Songs of Ascent (Ps. 121:1; 123:1) and in Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer (Jn. 17:1).
BOWED HEAD AND PROSTRATION
And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
Matthew 26:39
A bowed head, or laying fully prostrate on the ground, can signify a quiet heart of submission, a convicted heart of contrition, a pained heart of suffering, or a worshipping heart of awe. The more significant the grief, or the greater sense of God’s glory, the lower to the ground we get. We commonly bow our heads, but laying with our face to the floor parallels our desperate and needy condition for divine mercy, or the overwhelming awe that comes from seeing God’s holiness, power, mercy, and love applied to us as sinners.
Jesus, Joshua, and the Apostle John all serve as examples who prayed in these ways for different reasons (Mt. 26:39; Josh. 5:14; Rev. 1:17).
PRAYER AND POSTURE
Throughout Scripture we are commanded, invited, and welcomed to pray. It is not a mere duty we are called to fulfill, but a gift we are meant to receive. This gift is a means of grace through Jesus Christ that allows us to commune with our triune God and experience his blessings. In one of my favorite treatments on prayer John Bunyan said, “By prayer the Christian can open his heart to God, as to a friend, and obtain fresh testimony of God’s friendship to him.”*
All the direction and encouragement we find in Scripture concerning prayer aims at our hearts. The posture of our hearts in prayer matters more than the posture of our bodies. So we should be careful to learn to pray as God has instructed us through Jesus, the Prophets and the Apostles.
Yet, we shouldn’t forget the examples Jesus, the Prophets, and the Apostles left us in their use of various postures, nor should we forsake the role our physical posture can play in addressing the Lord.
Our posture can be both an expression of our hearts and an excitement of our faith as our bodies speak a language that can complement our prayers and supplications. We live as men and women redeemed in both body and soul, and are called to glorify God with all that we are, in body and soul.
Download the printable version with discussion questions here.
References and Resources
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Herman Witsius, Sacred Dissertations on the Lord’s Prayer
Isaac Watts, A Guide to Prayer
David Dickson, A Brief Explication of the Other Fifty Psalms From 50-100
William Gouge, The Church’s Conquest Over the Sword
John Bunyan, Prayer
