Clean hand is important for good hygiene. The American Society for Microbiology recently sponsored research to determine how many people wash their hands after visiting a public rest room, reports The New York Times. Evidently, almost everyone knows that they should wash their hands. In a telephone survey of 1,004 adults, 94 percent claimed that they always wash after using a public rest room. But do they? Researchers monitoring rest rooms in five large American cities found that out of 6,333 persons, only 61 percent of the men and 74 percent of the women washed their hands after using the toilet. Dirty hands spread diseases easily, and just one food handler with unwashed hands can make dozens of people sick. Part of the problem may be a lack of parental direction. “Moms often today are not telling their kids to wash their hands,” noted Dr. Gail Cassell. “Schools aren’t telling children about it. We need to be reminded that this is important.”
UNDER inspiration, the psalmist David sang:
“I shall wash my hands in innocency itself, and I will march around your altar, O Jehovah.”—Psalm 26:6.
In composing these words, David may have been alluding to the custom of Israel’s Levite priests to ascend the altar ramp and then place their sacrifices upon the fire. But before performing this act of worship, the priests were required to wash their hands and feet. This was no minor detail. Failure to take this preliminary step could cost a priest his life!—Exodus 30:18-21.
Figurative washing results in spiritual and moral cleanness. (Isaiah 1:16; Ephesians 5:26) Jehovah wants us to ‘march around his altar’ today by serving him. But he requires that we do so with clean hands—as David put it, hands that are washed “in innocency itself.” This is no trivial requirement, for those who practice uncleanness will not inherit God’s Kingdom. (Galatians 5:19-21) A life in godly works does not give one license to engage in immoral conduct. Thus the apostle Paul wrote:
“I pummel my body and lead it as a slave, that, after I have preached to others, I myself should not become disapproved somehow.”—1 Corinthians 9:27.
Those who seek divine approval and true happiness must serve God with clean hands. Like David, they walk “with integrity of heart and with uprightness.”—1 Kings 9:4.