“Let my prayer be set before You as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” Psalm 141:2 NKJV
“Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” (Revelation 5:8 NKJV
The burning of incense in the Old Testament is a symbolism of prayers being raised up to God. These were mostly associated with the daily sacrifices that were made at the Tabernacle and later in the Temple. Aaron was instructed early in the Israelites wandering in the desert to burn these incenses daily. “Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it. And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.” (Ex.30:7-8 nkjv) The book of Revelation speaks of incense as the prayers of the saints in the text above. (Rev.5:8)
King David in one of his prayers of lament asks that his prayer would be lifted up as incense burning daily on the altar. (Ps.141:2) It was not only this prayer that David had in mind but that all his prayers would be an ongoing flow of incense reaching up to heaven. David then lifted up his hands symbolizing praising God as the priests who raised their hands upward to the Lord at the evening sacrifice.
How about our prayers? Can we say our prayers will be among those in the golden bowls of the saints? This should convict us to examine our prayer life. Some of us may need to move on from the ‘five minutes and out the door’ prayer. I will say that it is not the length of our prayers that matters but the attitude and the way we approach God knowing who it is we are speaking to. A holy God. David took his prayers seriously as to a holy God and so should we.
