Revelation 8:3-4

(This will be most instructive when read with “The Hand as a Cup in Ancient Temple Worship” and the associated Anchor Bible Dictionary article on incense censers, listed under Ritual.)

And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.⁴ And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.

Incense is put in a censer, but the smoke from the burning incense rises out of the angel’s hand. Taking the text literally, there are two possibilities.

1) A censer holds burning coals. The angel didn’t have a censer, since, having a celestial body, he could hold the coals in his hand.

2) The angel had a censer shaped like a hand (see article listed above), and thus the censer is being referred to as the hand of the angel.

In either case, we have an angel at an altar, with incense rising from a hand before God with the prayers of the saints.

The Old Testament associates incense with prayer, asin Psalms 141:1-2, which, like many of the psalms, is a prayer. ” I call upon you, O LORD; come quickly to me; give ear to my voice when I call to you. ² Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.”

On the lifting up of hands, which is a posture of prayer, see the references under Prayer.