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Psalm 60, Psalm 60. Tonight we will read the first four verses of the Psalm, but we’re just going to concentrate on one verse. I don’t know, when I was studying this I came across what sometimes we call a nugget, right? And this is just super interesting to me, I thought, and hopefully it will be a blessing to you as well. Psalm 60, starting with the subtitle the Bible says this, “’To the chief musician upon Shushan Edith, Mictim of David, to teach. When he strove with Aram Neharem and with Aram Zoba, when Joab returned and smote of Edom in the valley of Salt, 12,000.’” When you see the word Aram in the Bible it refers to Syria, okay? And if you follow the historical context in like 2 Samuel you could find what happened at the background of this Psalm. All right, verse number one, “’Oh God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased, oh turn thyself to us again, thou hast made the earth to tremble, thou hast broken it, healed the breaches thereof for it shaketh, thou has showed thy people hard things, thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment, thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.” We’ll go ahead and read verse five, “’That thy beloved may be delivered, save with thy right hand, and hear me.’” Let’s pray together. Our fathers, we come to you now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for your help and grace as we study your Word that these truths that are taught to us in this Psalm would be a blessing and that we would be encouraged in the things of God. You’ve given us, Lord, a wonderful identity and Lord you have truly revealed yourself to us in great ways and you have bound us together and Lord we are so thankful for that fact and we pray Lord that you would give grace as we study your Word. Help me, Lord, to say the things that would be an encouragement and strengthen and help your people and for those that would be here but just can’t due to sickness and illness and things, please give grace to all of them and preserve them, Lord. And so bless our time in your Word, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen. I want to concentrate on verse number four. Verse number four. It says, “...Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.” Selah. Now if I say the word banner, what is a banner? What you’re probably going to be thinking is you’re probably thinking of a large rectangular, kind of a wide rectangular vinyl, you know, print, if you will, that you put out in front of something that is, you know, that displays a message. The key point being is it’s large, it displays a message, it has probably some symbols on it, some pictures on it, and stuff like that, and it conveys information. That’s usually what we think of and we think of a banner, something, you know, a large sign, if you will. But the problem with that is, well there’s no problem with that, except that when we read the Scripture, we got to be careful that we don’t read our own ideas and what we’re familiar with into the Scripture, because of course they didn’t have vinyl banners back in 1000 BC. So obviously that’s not what this is. So I did a little bit of research because I was curious what kind of banner, what would a banner look like in the ancient world? And I was actually very surprised at what I found, and of course I looked at the definition of banner, and but basically, here’s the definition, I’ll give you the definition and then we’ll kind of go from there.
A banner is a flag, a sculptured figure, or other conspicuous object raised on a pole to indicate the rallying point in battle of an army. Now that’s not what you and I would immediately think of when we think of the word banner. Now if you were in the military, familiar with military things, that might sound familiar because each unit in the military will have, and this goes way back, this goes all the way back to the time of David, which is actually, it’s related. Each one, like in the Marine Corps, each platoon will have a guidon, which is basically a flag. It’s a little flag with a little square or rectangle flag, and it’s on a pole, and then and that has the unit number on it, you’ve probably seen it. Now back in the Civil War and the Revolutionary War, those were informational. If the battle didn’t go your way or you wanted to rally, right, the symbol for rally, that’s where you would rally to wherever they’re holding the guidon or wherever they’re holding the ensign is another word for it. And of course, they’ve always had different symbols and numbers and letters and pictures and different things like that, so we’re a little bit familiar with that, but maybe it doesn’t readily come to mind when we think of a banner. So a banner in Scripture, like we read here, is a sign or a badge that they would take it and it would be made of like wood or metal, something permanent, probably decorative, but it was rigid, that’s the point. It wasn’t a flag like we think of, it was something rigid that would be crafted, and then it would be attached to a really long pole at the end of it, and then someone would hold the banner during the battle and they would raise the banner up. Now I don’t know how tall the banners were, but I imagine given the purpose that they had to be pretty tall. The purpose of the banner was so that those in the battle could see it from a long way off and immediately recognize it, because the banner was used as a rallying point for the army. So you could recognize what unit you were in or what unit you were supposed to be in or whether that was your banner, because you can imagine, especially at this time in history, the battles would have been absolutely pandemonium, right? Nobody could tell where they’re supposed to go, everybody’s going in different directions and all of that with the chaos, and so to have someone holding a banner that you could just glance up and see it at a distance and immediately recognize the symbol, maybe the symbol was a lion or maybe it was a bear or maybe it was a man or something else, and that symbol meant something to you. This is what we’re talking about, we’re talking about a banner. When I was doing some study on this, there’s actually some a Stella that has from the Babylonian period like 2500 BC that has a battle scene in relief and it has pictures of people holding these banners. The pole that I saw was probably about 10 feet, maybe 12 feet tall, to scale, but you could clearly see there was a pole and there was an object on top of it, different objects for different ones, and so that’s what we’re talking about, a banner, a pole with an object, some sort of carving or some sort of object attached to the top used as a fixed place that was a rallying point, especially during times of battle, but it wasn’t just used during times of battle. Look if you would quickly at Numbers chapter 2, Numbers chapter 2, Numbers 2. You’ll see this because they used in Scripture the children of Israel, and this goes way back to the time of Moses now, Numbers chapter 2 is when they’re in the wilderness, and each tribe had its own banner. Look at Numbers 2 verse 1, And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard. That’s the same as a banner.
There’s another word you’re going to see in just a minute which is the word incense. So banner, standard, incense, all refer to the same thing. Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard with the incense of their father’s house, far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch. So where did you know where to put your, where to put, drive in your tent stakes? You knew it because you knew what tribe you were a part of, and you looked up and you saw the various banners because remember we’re talking a couple million people.
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That covers a lot of real estate, right? A lot of real estate, and in fact if you go to the area of Midian in modern-day Saudi Arabia where they traveled around this time in history, there are large expanses of desert where these people would have had to camp. And you know it would be very helpful to look and see, okay way off in the distance I can see that that’s a whatever, a bear, and so that’s the tribe of whatever. That’s where they’re camping. And so if you were of a tribe, of a different tribe, you would look for your standard or incense and that’s where you knew where to go. So each tribe had its own banner or its own sign that represented that tribe.
For instance, Judah’s symbol was a, it was a lion, the lion of the tribe of Judah. That’s why it was a lion. Zebulun’s symbol was a ship because Zebulun was promised that they would be the tribe near the sea. And Gad, Gad’s symbol was a tent of soldiers because the word Gad means a troop. And Rubens, anybody want to take a guess what Rubens tribe was? Mandrakes, I’ll let you do your research on that and figure out why that’s the case in your Bible study. So you know I think Asher was a snake and so you had you had things like that and that’s how they recognized their banner or their incense.
Now the word, if you’ll look back, if you’ll look back in the in the Psalm, Psalm 64, 60 rather, Psalm 60, we’re gonna go to a couple other places just to show you how the banners were used and then we’re gonna bring it home. Psalm 60 verse number four, thou has given us a banner to, thou has given a banner to them that fear thee. Now what you see in this word banner, we saw it in Numbers chapter two, it said, it said ensign and it said standard. So in Scripture, this word that we have in verse four of Psalm 60 that’s put as banner is translated in other places as ensign or as standard and a couple of times it’s actually translated as sale.
But it kind of gives you an idea if you if you do a study of it of it all and you look at those various instances you can see exactly how it is used. But here’s the idea of a banner that we kind of want to nail down because it’s directly related to the nugget I want to share with you here. The first thing is the banner was on a pole and you’ll see more about that in just a minute.
The banner was on a pole. Number two, the banner was lifted up high. Look at Isaiah chapter 18 real quick if you would. Isaiah 18, Isaiah 18. Look if you would at verse number three.
Isaiah 18 verse three, all ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth see ye, notice he tells them to see, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Notice that he lifts up an ensign. So the banner was on a pole, the banner was lifted high, and because the banner was lifted high the banner was visible for everyone to see which is why in verse three he tells them he’s going to lift up the ensign and he’s saying look everybody look at the ensign, everybody look at the banner, and then look at Jeremiah chapter four.
Jeremiah chapter four. Verse number 21. I’m having a hard time turning the pages myself. Jeremiah four verse number 21. The Bible says this, how long shall I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet? You see it’s a battle scene. Sound of the trumpet’s battle. You see the standard. There’s a it’s a rallying point used in a course of war. Okay now if you would go to Exodus chapter 17 and we’re getting close to our point here. Exodus chapter 17. All right look at Exodus 17 and verse number.
Look down around verse number 15. So there’s this battle the Israelites have with the Amalekites and of course they win. This is the battle where Joshua and her, Aaron and her rather, hold up the hands of Moses while Joshua’s fighting the battle. Remember in as long as his hands are up there will be no battle. So they’re holding up the hands of Moses while they’re fighting the battle. Remember in as long as his hands are up they’re winning against the Amalekites and when his hands get weary they begin to lose. Well they of course win the battle.
Verse number 15. So he builds an altar to commemorate this God’s victory against the Amalekites and he gives it a name which was not too uncommon. He gives it a name and the name was this. You might call this a monument like we would name the monument like the Statue of Liberty. Here they called it after the name of the Lord and he calls it Jehovah-Nesi which means the Lord my banner because after all it was to commemorate a battle in which a banner would be lifted up high right and be a rallying point of the people. But here’s the thing I want you to take away from this verse is he calls the altar after the name of God but he calls God’s name the Lord our banner. So from this verse we see that the banner, go back if you if you if you think back to Psalm 60 verse 4 the Bible says that the Lord gave them a banner right the Lord gave them a banner and here we see that the the Lord himself is the banner. Now what does that mean? The Lord is the banner. Now of course we’re speaking figuratively here so but but think about it the children of Israel the one thing to the children of Israel that united them the one thing that identified the children of Israel and the one thing that kept them together was the fact that Jehovah himself was their God. That is the uniting factor that is the rally point if you will that is their identification and that’s part of a banner as well just like Judah had a lion the Lord himself was the identification for Israel.
The Lord himself was also what distinguished Israel from all the nations around them in fact listen to this 1 Kings 8 53 says this, for thou didst separate them talking about Israel from all from among all the people of the earth to be thine inheritance as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant when thou broadest our fathers out of Egypt oh Lord God. What is it that separated Israel from all the other lands all the other nations rather around them it was God was their banner that what distinguished them was the Lord himself that God was with them he was among them that’s what made them different that was the glue that kept them together that was their identity even the very name Israel what does it mean it means Prince of God even their very name of their nation is of course comes from Jacob but it’s related to their God but it’s related to their God and so for God to be the banner means that the rally the rallying point the thing about which the children of Israel united and identified was God he is their banner okay that’s pretty that’s pretty simple that’s that’s a significant point now go to Numbers chapter 21 Numbers chapter 21 all right Numbers 21 look if you would at verse number four you’re familiar with this this is the story of the brazen serpent look at verse four Numbers 21 verse four and they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way and the people spake against God and against Moses wherefore have you brought us up out of the land out of Egypt to die in the wilderness for there is no bread neither is there any water and our soul loatheth this light bread and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and much people of Israel died therefore the people came to Moses and said we have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee pray unto the Lord that he may that he take away the serpents from from us and Moses prayed for the people and the Lord said unto Moses make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live and Moses made a serpent of brass and put it on a pole upon a pole and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived you can see in this passage with the brazen serpent on the pole you have every mark of a of a biblical banner do you not what do you have you have a pole you have something on top of the pole which is it’s the serpent right you have the pole being lifted up you have the pole visible for everyone to see those are all the key elements of what a what a what a pole what a banner was in the scripture the serpent’s on a pole the serpent is lifted up high the serpent is visible for everyone to see obviously because the idea is when you behold the serpent you look at the serpent if you’ve been bitten by one of the fiery serpents you’re healed and so obviously has to be visible and so the serpent itself then think about now the serpent itself is a rally point and a unifying thing for all of those who were bitten and looked and lived right so imagine later you know after you’re healed and after everything’s fine and you’ve moved on with life and you meet other people and you have this testimony you say yeah i got you remember those serpents last week i got yeah i got bit and i was i was i was i was checking out i was about gone and moses put this pole and i saw this banner lifted up and and they said if you just look you’ll live and i looked and i was i got better i was healed and then they this person has that same testimony and this person has that same testimony and this person this for all these people have been bitten by the serpents have also now been healed through this uh looking at this serpent that’s on a pole this banner that would be a that’s kind of a rallying cry that’s a form of identification there you know they’re going to have they’re going to have uh they’re going to have some uh some alumni days they’re going to have a reunion of all the people who have been bitten by a serpent were and were healed by looking at looking at the brazen serpent in 20 years right that’s probably what they did i’m sure but the point is is it’s a matter of their identity they they had been bitten they looked and lived and that identity surrounded this serpent on a pole it’s their banner now think about it what you might not know if you look down at verse number um here in numbers look down at verse number eight and the lord said unto moses make the fiery serpent and set it upon a pole you see it also in verse number nine a pole the word pole there is the word banner in psalm 60 verse four it’s the same word so in every way including the word it’s a banner it’s a banner now why is that important because if you know john chapter three you know that the story of the serpent in the wilderness is directly related in fact it is a type of jesus christ right it’s a type of jesus christ not and not just jesus generally it’s a very specific type you know these verses but i’m going to read them so just just listen closely to what they say and as moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness now that’s the banner that’s the incident that’s the standard that moses lift up big old tall pole with a brazen serpent on the top anybody who looks lives as moses lifted up that serpent even so must the son of man that’s that’s jesus christ be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him that’s the looking should not perish but have eternal life for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life so jesus and specifically jesus on the cross dying for sinners is the banner and i’m not listen i’m not just making this up because it’s that you know to have a sermon i’m not making it up it this is a clear thread of truth that follows truth that follows the pattern and the example and type that we read in in numbers 21 that is talking about that is looking forward to jesus being on the cross notice it’s not jesus teaching it’s not jesus healing it’s jesus dying it’s jesus lifted up that’s why the banner is so important it must be raised up high you see the banner is in the old testament of course the lord is the banner jehovah nisi but in the new testament of course he is he’s still our banner but the the lord has maybe taken it a little bit different form because to us the banner that we have is our savior slain for sinners and this is the listen now this is the one truth around which all the children of god rally it is the one truth with which every child of god identifies regardless of what kind of church they go to regardless of their stage in life regardless of where they are in the world what their language is the cross of christ that christ like that serpent was lifted up is is the one banner that identifies the believer is the one banner and it’s the only banner that we have it’s the only banner that we have now what do i mean by that and again i’m talking not just i’m not talking about jesus in in in kind of nebulous and in general terms you know everybody believes in jesus you know everybody has their own jesus you know but i’m talking about the serpent in the wilderness was a banner on that pole that’s the banner the serpent in the wilderness referred to and pictured jesus christ lifted up on the cross dying for sinners and whosoever like we saw whosoever believeth on him that is looks will live live eternally right that’s the picture and just as that was a banner in numbers 21 so christ on the cross is a banner for all believers for that is our entrance to eternal life that is our identity that is that is that is christ is all he is our banner and he is our only banner you know there are many things in this world to which people like us and i say that like conservative minded people conservative religiously conservative politically conservative socially people that have a worldview similar to ours there’s many things that people like us might rally around sometimes people will rally around homeschooling right you got you know their homeschool groups and that kind of thing sometimes people rally around political things are they all on the same page politically sometimes people rally around and identify with health food that’s a thing you know whether they eat this or vegan or you know all this stuff sometimes people rally around things like family values or other issues or other ideas and it’s not to say that those things are bad but those things are not our banner those things are not our banner you see a person can be and and involved be involved in any in any of those things and not have christ as his banner can a person be conservative politically and not have christ as his banner not be trusting like that that person that sir that person had been bitten by the serpent looked and lived that was his banner at that point that’s his banner that was his banner at that point that’s his banner i was saved right by that banner if you will you know there are plenty of people that are involved in you know they’re involved in homeschooling and they had they go to the co-ops and i’m not knocking that but but there are there are people that go there that that do not have christ as their banner there are many people that are involved in politics i mean we’re getting getting into that season who do not have christ as their banner there’s people who have family values who do not have christ as their banner who are not trusting in the christ crucified they might go to church they might like jesus but they’re not they haven’t looked and lived christ is not their banner you see those other issues whatever good they might be are not what unite and identify god’s people because god’s people have but one banner and that one banner is christ jesus slain for sinners that’s it that is the one thing that unites and identifies the true children of god whatever they might be involved in otherwise that is their identity that is who they are their eternal life comes from that truth but not only that think about you know with moses and the serpent in the wilderness they lifted up the banner there were some people who didn’t look and live right we we assume they were bitten they refused to look for whatever reason and so they didn’t live but they but there was there was opportunity in other words the the idea with the banner is is lifted up high is lifted up high the lord gives a banner so it’s visible and it’s not just visible to us you know cross the cross of christ that is when i say cross i’m not referring to the symbol i’m not referring to the preacher stewart used to call this the dog bone cross i’m not referring to the dog bone cross here i’m referring i’m not referring to symbols i’m referring to the savior on the cross dying for sinners right you see even we have trusted in that savior who died on the cross but that banner is to be lifted up so other people see him that’s why it’s way up on top on top of a pole anybody whosoever believeth in him whoever looks will live that’s that’s the idea that’s the picture and so we we hold to this banner our lord jesus who died for us he is our life he died for us he is our savior we have no hope but the savior who died on the cross and yet we want to see christ lifted up for the world to see john 12 32 and i if i be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me that’s not talking about glorifying jesus although it might it’s talking about the cross christ being lifted up what is our message our message is christ died for sinners right that’s the message because that’s our identity that’s who we are that’s our rally point that’s our standard and when we get to heaven and we finally do all assemble as the people of god as the church of the living god you know where we will assemble we will assemble around the throne of a lamb who was slain that’s what revelation tells us and we’ll be there because of that slain lamb that’s what revelation chapter five tells us the 24 elders give praise and say thou hast redeemed us to god by thy blood from from the moment we looked and lived through all of eternity our banner is christ slain for us isn’t that simple isn’t that profound and it should be visible to everyone else we are his people we identify with him now i know there’s a lot of people in this world who claim to be christians who have never looked at the savior to to live that’s just true people of different religions different faiths different denominations or whatever and they they have a form of religion they have they have church they have religion but christ is not their banner and you can tell you know why because of what what they emphasize what they say is the key what they say is the core if i were to ask you why are you who you are what hope do you have of heaven what is the what is your life now you might not we might not all be able to articulate it just so but the biblical answer to that and the one that should resonate with the heart of every child of god is christ died for me that’s it that is all i am that’s all the hope i have that a savior died for me that’s what it means to be your banner right christ is all christ is all the hope is but think about it what is the banner of catholicism what is the banner of catholicism you know what it is it is not christ on the cross although they have that symbol everywhere what’s ironic is they have the symbol but not the substance they have the crucifix but not the truth of it the banner of catholicism is rome is the church that’s why so much emphasis is placed on the church why the church is the one who holds the authority and the church determines whether you have eternal life what’s the banner of mormonism do you ever hear mormons talking about jesus on the cross dying for sinners no because their banner is the latter-day saints organization what is the banner of jehovah’s witnesses do you ever hear them talking about jesus dying on the cross and how that’s how people get no because the joe the banner of the jehovah’s witnesses is the watchtower bible and tract society now we know that these groups they all give lip service to the cross of christ but the focal point of their faith and the point around which they rally is not christ dying for sinners it’s something else rome watchtower lds see christ slain for sinners is not their banner what’s the banner of islam they believe in jesus isa they call him they believe in jesus the banner of islam is muhammad what’s the banner of the baptists is it a denomination too many it is it is well i’m going to heaven because i’m baptist because i’m baptist you got the wrong banner right to some more of our ilk we might answer well it’s the ifb right those of you that are in the know you know what that means and everything everything rises and falls on that identification that’s not the banner that better not be the banner lord help you if that’s a banner the banner of the child of god is and must always be the son of man lifted up and dying for us christ is all he is our banner amen is he your banner do you rally around him i’m telling you again we might not have all the answers to all those questions but one day if you’ve looked and lived you’re going to rally around that banner and i am too when we see the lord in heaven let’s pray together