Ps 148:13-14 "Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. 14 He has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his saints, of Israel, the people close to his heart." NIV
There is a people close to the heart of the Lord! Psalm 148:13-14 is a celebration of the Lord’s faithful provision for this people that He loves. Verse 14 passionately proclaims Israel as the people that have captured a special place in His heart. From earliest times the Lord set apart the children of Abraham to be a people who enjoyed a special revelation of God in their midst! Out of all the nations, the Lord found a man named Abram, and led him upon a discovery of God that would prepare the world for a restoration of intimacy with our creator.
Given a new name in the midst of a deep mystical encounter with God, Abram, now Abraham was set apart because of his faith to become the father of all those who would believe. God made Himself known to Abraham and then to the proceeding generations, as a means of unveiling his love for the people that he has created. In the Garden of Eden intimacy with God was forfeited by man’s willful sin and yet the love of God compelled Him to prepare a means of restoration. Throughout the next 4,000 years God pursued a people that He could call His own. He raised up the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to become a nation through which He could demonstrate His intimate affection and through which He could display the nature of this relationship with all mankind. The nation of Israel was born out of 400 years of slavery as God raised up a new generation of followers through which He could display His glory.
Birthed in a miraculous climate of global confrontation and supernatural manifestation, the people of Israel followed the Lord into the land of promise. Their hearts were tested, and their faith matured as they learned how to walk with God in a level of partnership and purpose that the world had never seen. Since that time the purpose of God has continued to expand throughout the generations as the purpose of God through Christ has been made known and all men have been invited to share this life of intimacy. And yet there is still a people close to the Lord’s heart. God is not a respecter of persons but still the scriptures tell us that Israel is precious in His sight. Now separated from God by their unbelief, Paul tells us that this people have experienced a temporary hardening of heart for the sake of the rest of mankind being given a window of time through which to enter into a grace relationship with God. But Israel is not replaced in God’s affections! He is the same yesterday, today and forever, and this “peculiar” people is still precious in His sight.
Paul shared the Lord’s heart in this way with such passion that he declared in Rom 11:25-26 “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved,” The nation of Israel s still in the plan of God and we are reminded to cry out for her salvation. Let your heart be open to the purpose of God in the land of promise and cry out for the spirit of revival to sweep from north to south, east to west throughout all of Israel that the glory of God may be revealed. Let the words of the Lord through Isaiah stir your heart today as you pray: Isa 62:6-7 “You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, 7 and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.”
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