Countless times in scripture God is depicted as holding us or leading us or guiding us by our right hands (ex. – Psalm 16:8, 17:7, 20:6). It’s curious to me that He never holds us by our left hands. I have some thoughts as to why this is.

Where are you going?

What’s that? You don’t care? Very well. 🙂

Ninety percent of the population is right-handed. That means, for most of us, our dominant hands are our right hands. It is with our right hands that we function best. It is easier for us to do almost everything with our right hands than with our left hands. I think the Lord considered this is the predominant reality for most people when He chose to focus so heavily on right hands in the Bible. He’s a good marketer like that.

Knowing most of us are apt to rely heavily on our right hands, perhaps God holds us by our right hands so we stop doing so much ourselves. Maybe He wants us to have to rely on Him a little lot more than we’re inclined to when we have both our hands at our disposal. If He is holding us by our right hands, we’re forced to use our left hands if we want to do anything. And, as a righty, there isn’t a whole lot I can do well with my left hand. My writing looks like chicken scratch (or, more accurately, even more like chicken scratch), my ability to throw a ball left-handed makes me appear inebriated, and so does everything else that requires coordination, for that matter.

So, if God is tying up our right hands by holding them, we can’t dominate a situation in our own strength. If we want the situation to work out well, we have to rely on Him.

Interestingly, when scripture talks about God doing something powerful, it always refers to Him as using His right hand to accomplish it (ex. – Exodus 15:6, Psalm 60:5). And this makes sense because, in the economy of hand holding, if God is holding our right hands, He is probably using His left hand to do so. And if He is holding our right hands with His left hand, that leaves His right hand free to operate powerfully on our behalves. 

Another theory I have about why God chooses to hold us by our right hands instead of our left hands is that our right/dominant hands are stronger than our left hands. Because we use them so much, each muscle is capable of gripping and squeezing the Lord’s hand with more force than the muscles in our left hands.

Maybe God holds us by our right hands because He knows it will be easier for us to hold onto His hand with our right hands. We are far less likely to tire when we cling to Him with our dominant hands.

So.

In conclusion, this is my weirdest post ever. There are no clear object lessons nor applications. Unless you want to interpret my observations and hunches as true. Then you could say, “I will stop relying on myself so much, rely on God more, and hold onto Him tightly while He does all the hard work for me with His right hand.” Or something.

Happy Saturday.