Favor for Zion

The Lord says that the regathering of Israel in our day is a banner raised by Him for the nations. Events in Israel and the Middle East today are at the center of world attention and media coverage. This period of Israel’s regathering at the end of the age was marked out clearly on God’s great prophetic calendar three thousand years ago. Here is one of the passages that make this clear:

“You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come. For her stones are dear to your servants; her very dust moves them to pity. The nations will fear the name of the Lord, all the kings of the earth will revere your glory. For the Lord will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory… Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord.” (Psalm 102:13–16, 18, NIV)

Now is God’s appointed time to have mercy on Zion and to show favor to her. This is not something that Zion or the Jewish people have earned, but something that comes out of God’s sovereign grace and mercy. One of the main purposes of what God is doing is to bring glory to His own name in the sight of all the nations by fulfilling His promises to Israel. The rebuilding of Zion is one of the great biblical signs that the time is at hand for the Lord to appear in His glory. We have the great privilege of living in the time that the psalmist here foresaw. I believe we are the ones being created as a people in response to what God is doing for one supreme purpose: to bring praise to the Lord.