It’s an act of worship.
It is a sacrifice of praise to God. It could even be considered as a prayer in and of itself, as when you are so frustrated and you don’t know what do to and so you lift up your hands in supplication and prayer to God.
Psalm 134:2: “
Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD.”
Psalm 141:2: “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and** the lifting up of my hands** as the evening sacrifice!”
Psalm 28:2: “Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when
I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.”
Lamentations 2:19: “Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord!** Lift your hands to him
for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street."
1 Timothy 2:9-10: "I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands** without anger or quarreling”
There are many other verses besides this that talk about lifting of hands as part of worship.
The raising of hands is a very ancient act of worship. It’s not just a Christian or Jewish thing either. I believe pagans in the Mediterranean world would have prayed with outstretched hands as well.
It sort of experienced a revival in the 19th and 20th centuries with more revivalistic and Pentecostal type traditions developing.
If you want to know more, look at the Wikipedia entry on the
Orans.
