“Pour out Your wrath upon the nations which do not know You, and upon the kingdoms which do not call upon Your name. For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation. Do not remember the iniquities of our forefathers against us; let Your compassion come quickly to meet us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; and deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name’s sake” (Psa 79:6-9).
Whether the world or the church likes it or not, Israel’s calling is irrevocable, and they have been called to “bear God’s name” (Exod 20:7). Because God identifies himself as the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Exod 3:6, 15; 4:5), and because Yeshua is called the “King of the Jews” (Matt 2:2; 27:11, 37; John 19:19) and the “King of Israel” (John 12:13), God has forever tied his reputation to the Israelites according to the flesh (see Rom 9:3–4). It is this issue, more than any other, that drove Paul to write three entire chapters concerning the reputation of God with respect to his promises to Israel (Rom 9–11).
God’s name is at the heart of Asaph’s prayer for his people in Psalm 79. The devastation of Jerusalem is not merely a national tragedy. It has become an occasion for the nations to mock the God whose name Israel bears. Four times, Asaph laments the shame of Jerusalem’s destruction by the “nations” who do not know the name of God (Psa 79:1, 6, 10). Again and again, he reminds God that the land and the people being mocked by these nations belong to the LORD (Psa 79:1, 2, 10, 13). Asaph therefore stands in the gap and prays for God to judge the nations (Psa 79:6) and forgive his people (Psa 79:8), not for Israel’s sake, but for the sake of God’s glorious name.
Why should Christians care deeply about what happens to Israel and the Jewish people? Because God has staked his own reputation on Israel’s fate. The nations do not merely mock Israel; they mock the “God of Israel.” Whenever Israel and the Jewish people are spoken of with contempt, even by Christians, it is an affront to the “God of Israel” and the “King of the Jews.” For Paul, zeal for God’s glory did not produce indifference toward Israel. It produced prayer for Israel. Because we are passionate about the glory of God’s name and his reputation, we join the Apostle Paul in praying:
“Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation” (Rom 10:1).
