Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(Philippians 2:9–11)
Last week we observed the biblical basis for raising our hands in prayer. Today, I want to show you both the biblical and historical basis for kneeling in prayer.
The most common postures for prayer in the Bible are kneeling and standing (e.g. Ps. 28:2; 95:6; 134:2; Ac. 9:40; 20:36). There are a few places in Scripture where worshipers go from kneeling to standing or vice versa. The one posture we rarely observe in Scripture for prayer is sitting. There are only three occasions where individuals sat to pray: when Moses was tired, when Elijah sat under the broom tree and prayed to die (1 Kgs. 19:14), and when Jonah sat under a fig tree and grumbled against God. These are hardly ideal patterns to imitate! On the contrary, kneeling so naturally and universally communicates a spirit of reverence and humility that it was actively encouraged during the Reformation. The 1559 Book of Discipline of the French Reformed Church, for example, specifically mentions a failure to kneel or uncover one’s head for prayer as a gesture of disrespect that should be changed: “That great irreverence which is found in divers persons, who at public and private prayers do neither uncover their heads nor bow their knees shall be reformed . . . .”
Physical posture forces our minds to remember something spiritually important. Calvin states: “One of the natural feelings which God has imprinted on our mind is that prayer is not genuine unless the thoughts are turned upward. Hence the ceremony of raising the hands, to which we have adverted, a ceremony known to all ages and nations, and still in common use. But who, in lifting up his hands, is not conscious of sluggishness, the heart cleaving to the earth?”1 Kneeling bends our bodies into a posture of humility, which will hopefully bend our souls as well. John Calvin said as much: “As for bodily gestures customarily observed in praying, such as kneeling . . . they are exercises whereby we try to rise to a greater reverence for God.”2
Elizabeth Elliot’s brother, Thomas Howard, eloquently made a similar point when he reflected on his experience of walking into an evangelical church where worshipers knelt:
We mortals know that some of our best praying occurs at excessively awkward moments. We find ourselves squeezed in a subway, or marooned in a traffic jam, or jogging, and we realize we might as well say our prayers as waste the time. . . It cannot be argued, then, that we must kneel. But it can indeed be argued that posture is immensely significant and that if we find shallowness to be a problem in worship services then it may be worth considering the matter. We sit for a thousand things . . . to eat, to chat, to work, to write notes, to rest. It may be that our bodies cry out for an attitude that will pluck us by the sleeve, as it were, and assist our inner-beings in the extremely difficult task of prayer.3
Kneeling is not a legalistic duty; for some it is physically impossible. The Bible simply commends it as something generally helpful in shaping our attitudes in prayer. What attitudes do we want our souls to have as a result? They are humility and gratitude.4 Calvin said that on the one hand, the Christian is to recognize by his kneeling his unworthiness before God and express his respect for his majesty. On the other hand, he kneels as an act of deep gratitude to the God of his salvation.5 From Philippians 2:10, Calvin would argue that kneeling “designates true and godly worship.”6
- Institutes 3.20.16.
- Ibid., 3.20.33.
- Thomas Howard, Evangelical is Not Enough: Worship of God in Liturgy and Sacrament (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1984), Ch. 3, “A Position for Prayer.”
- John Calvin, Commentary Acts 9:40; 20:36.
- Institutes 4.10.30; cf. Commentary Psalms 28:2; 95:6; 134:2.
- Institutes 3.5.8