Posture matters.
Not only does your posture have an impact on your health, it necessarily reflects and affects your inner person. Mom’s instructions move accurately and quickly from physicality to character. “Don’t slouch” becomes “Don’t BE a slouch.” Why? Posture expresses outwardly what we value inwardly.
Do we value our bodies? My body is the first deposit of God’s creation to my stewardship. Made in His image, I would glorify God by sitting up straight. Do we value others? When I sit with folks around a meal, for coffee, for fellowship, am I loving them rightly? Does my posture toward them convey acceptance, warmth, respect? These are light considerations compared to my posture before God. If I don’t want to be a slouch in my physical responsibilities or human relationships, certainly I don’t want to be a slouch toward God.
My wife challenged me a few months ago. “Why do we stand to read the Scripture sometimes and not other times?” That is a great question. Questions like that one hit me harder than inquisitive musings on the more esoteric points of theology. Posture concerns us daily. Certainly, I don’t want to have my brothers and sisters in Christ standing throughout worship services so as to fulfill traditional patterns or satisfy legalistic nonsense. Jesus warned the Pharisees who added such burdens to weary folks that external ritual never achieves internal righteousness (Mark 7:14-23).
Is standing when Scripture is publicly read an appropriate posture of worship? Should this request be made of Christians in corporate worship? My conviction on this matter strengthens as I read Nehemiah 8:5, “Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up.” Well, there you go. Chapter and verse. Scripture prescribes this posture in corporate worship. Like those who stand when a king or queen enters the room, like those who stand for the pledge of allegiance and sing our national anthem, we stand to honor God when His word is read to us. We give Him reverence, and demonstrate our allegiance to Him. This is good posture. I feel validated in the effort. But then I read the next verse, Nehemiah 8:6, “Then Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God and all the people answered ‘Amen, Amen!’ while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.” This looks positively Islamic. No. What Mohammed did not get from Lucifer himself, he borrowed from the Bible. This ritual idolatry for hundreds of millions of Muslims derives its prescribed posture from the true worshipers of the true God. Satan, cleverly, would make Christians everywhere balk at ever lowering their bodies to the floor and placing their faces on the ground. But God is not all about that stuff is He? He’s all about what’s on the inside. He would never want people on their faces on the floor would He?
What of the innumerable multitude of the redeemed? What is their posture of worship? Revelation 7:11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God. What of the Samaritan leper whom Christ healed? Luke 17:16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. What of Jesus Christ Himself when He prayed to His Father? Mark 14:35 And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by.
It seems to me that good posture before Almighty God and the Reigning Lamb would include this falling to the ground. This falling down has nothing to do with the chaos of ecstatic performances. This prostrate form is good posture in the presence of God. Nehemiah 8:5-6 is a tonic for a North American Christendom which has made reclining the new reverence, and replaced the fear of the LORD with having “fun” with God. Yes, our internal faith matters far more than our external pose. Yes, while man looks only on the outward appearance, God looks upon the heart. Yes, it would probably scare the heebie jeebies out of your pew neighbor, if you fell out in the aisle. Yet, have you ever been on your face before God, even in your prayer closet? Jesus says that’s where it matters most. If anything, let’s put our attention on Christ. When it comes to His posture before the Father, our Savior was no slouch.
