Psalm 78:70-72 in the Bible tells us that God chose David the shepherd boy to be the shepherd of his people and David fed them according to the integrity of his heart and with his skillful hands he led them. “Skillful hands” – what does that mean? Merriam-Webster’s defines the word, skillful as one possessing or displaying skill or expertise.

The hands that was used to bring down the giant Goliath was also the same hands that played the music of the harp so expertly that it refreshed the troubled king, Saul (1 Samuel 16:23). But what made David’s hands, hands of expertise or skillful? The Bible tells us that David had LEARNABLE hands and the Lord taught his hands (2 Samuel 22:35). Not only did David have learnable hands, but he had hands that he LIFTED up to the Lord (Psalm 63:4) as a sacrifice (Psalm 141:2). David used the skillfulness of his learnable and lifted hands to lead God’s people.

Points to ponder:
Have you/I lifted our/my hands in adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication to the LORD, blessing his Name? The Bible counsels us to behold and bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD … lift up your hands and bless the LORD (Psalm 134:1-2).
Are your hands and mine, learnable; teachable by the Lord? God has given each one of us some skills and talents. The question is what have we done with the skill of our hands? I recently saw a tweet (@0xerror) which with I completely agree. The tweet expressed “The talents you have is God’s gift to you. What you do with them is your gift to God!”

2 Samuel 22:35 (KJV)
35 He teacheth my hands to war; so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.

Psalm 63:3-4 (KJV)
3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

Psalm 141:2 (KJV)
2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.