Title: The Banner Displayed
Text: Ps 60: 1-12
Date: April 2,2020
Place: SGBC, NJ
Psalm 60: 1: « To
the chief Musician upon Shushaneduth, Michtam of David, to teach; when he
strove with Aramnaharaim and with Aramzobah, when Joab returned, and smote of
Edom in the valley of salt twelve thousand. »
This golden Psalm of
David is to teach. It is to teach us that
God has given his saints “a banner.” A
banner is a flag, an ensign. This banner
is to be displayed. We read in verse 4, “Thou
hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of
the truth. Selah.” Our banner is
Jehovah Nissi—the Lord our Banner, our Lord Jesus Christ (Ex 18: 15). God has given us Christ to be our Banner to be
displayed or lifted up before all like as a flag is raised that his people might
look to Christ alone. Why? The last part
of verse 11 give the reason, “vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it
is that shall tread down our enemies.”
David wrote this
Psalm in the midst of war—"When he strove with Aramnaharaim and with
Aramzobah, when returned, and smote of Edom in the valley of salt twelve
thousand.” David won that battle,
not Saul. It typified Christ winning
the victory for his people, apart from our works. Christ accomplished the warfare for his
people, not sinful man, not we ourselves.
That is what this Psalm teaches us.
Subject: The Banner Displayed
Proposition: This Psalm teaches that Christ our Banner must be
lifted up that we might look to him to win the victory for us.
Divisions: 1) It is vain to trust in man 2) Christ is our Banner by
whom we are saved 3) When God makes us look to Christ our Banner then we
triumph valiantly
IT IS VAIN TO TRUST
IN MAN
Psalm 60: 1: O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast
scattered us, thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again. 2: Thou
hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof;
for it shaketh. 3: Thou hast shewed thy people hard things: thou hast made us
to drink the wine of astonishment.
Saul was king prior
to David. He was a sinner who trusted himself. Therefore, in Saul we see a representation of
any sinner who trusts himself rather than Christ. In Saul, God teaches us that it is vain to
trust in man. While Saul reigned
as king, God worked against the children of Israel. God made the children of Israel to suffer defeat
and division. That is a very important
doctrine vital to salvation. We must understand
this; we must believe it about ourselves. As long as our sinful, God-hating flesh reigns
over us making us look to man rather than Christ, God shall work against us and
we shall suffer defeat and division in everything we do.
In our Warfare
One, we see it is vain
to trust in man in the battles they fought.
Under King Saul they looked to man to win their battles and their wars. They looked to the strength of their armies
and the cunning of their generals. Therefore, God made the children of Israel suffer
defeat in war—"O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou
hast been displeased.”
When God’s people
look to Christ, we win the battle by Christ. On one occasion when the children of Judah were
preparing to go into battle under king Jehoshaphat, God sent a word to them, “And
he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king
Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason
of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s” (2 Chr 20:15). Of course, they won the battle.
But when Saul and his
men looked to themselves, God did not go out to war with them. Therefore, the result was defeat. That is what he means by saying, “O God,
thou hast cast us off.” In verse 10,
he speaks of “God, which hadst cast us off.” How did God cast them off? “Thou, O God, which didst not go out with
our armies?”
Brethren, we cannot defeat earthly enemies except by
Christ. Then certainly, we cannot defeat
our great enemies such as satan, sin, our sin-nature, death and hell. It is vain to trust in man! We must believe on Christ! Only Christ defeats the enemies of his people.
In Creating Unity
Two, we see it is vain to trust man to create unity or to
reconcile ourselves to God when we the division they suffered under the reign
of king Saul. Since they looked to man, God
caused Israel to suffer division amongst themselves in their own kingdom. He speaks of it symbolically as an earthquake—"Thou
hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it.”
We are sinners.
Our sins have separated us from God.
Therefore we cannot create unity between us and God. We cannot reconcile ourselves to God apart
from Christ. If we cannot create spiritual
unity between one another then we certainly cannot create unity with God. Only Christ can reconcile us to God and bring
us into union.
Look at this personally.
When two sinners are divided there is one reason, they are trusting
in themselves. If a believer trusts
Christ to make our brethren stand—to teach them, correct them, make them submit
to Christ—then Christ will produce unity between us and our brethren. As the apostle Paul said, “Who art thou that
judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea,
he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand” (Rom 14:4). But if one brother accuses another, condemns
him, forsakes him then it is the sure result of trusting himself; he is
trusting his own self-righteousness, trusting his own wisdom, looking to
himself to be his brother’s judge. It is
sinful pride! Therefore, God will not
create unity by it. When we look to
ourselves we create division because we are not trusting Christ and it does not
glorify God. So knowing that Christ
alone reconciles sinners to one another, we can be certain that Christ alone is
able to reconcile sinners to God.
In Learning from God’s Providence
Under Saul’s dominion, God made the children of Israel
see hard things. God brought them to stagger
as drunk men in that they knew not what to do about the problems God brought
them into—"Thou hast shewed thy people hard things: thou hast made us
to drink the wine of astonishment.”
Brethren, does that
sound familiar? We talk about God’s timeliness
in bringing portions of scripture that apply to our lives right now. Do we not see God’s timeliness in bringing us
to this portion of scripture as we see face the hard things God has set before
us in the world today? This is exactly
what God has done in sending this pestilence we call the coronavirus.
God has shown us hard
things: people are dying; the economy is failing; unemployment is at an all-time
high. God has made the earth tremble:
nations and governments are divided; political parties are divided more than ever;
God has made an earthquake of division the world over. In it all God has made us drink the wine
of astonishment: political leaders, physicians, economists, everyone is staggering
about as drunk men having no idea what to do about these problems.
What caused God to
send this virus and make the world drink this wine of astonishment? We have trusted
man rather than God. It is vain to trust
man’s strength rather than Christ our Strength. Yet, we see men continuing to
look to man’s strength. That is what we do
when we look to government to save us from this judgment of God. It is trusting man when so many blame this
party and that party. It is no different
than trusting our works to save us from our sins.
It is vain to trust man’s
wisdom rather than Christ our Wisdom. Yet, that is what we see men continue to
do. It is leaning to our own
understanding to try to understand this pestilence apart from God’s word. It is trusting our own wisdom when we give
our opinions or chalking this up as some big conspiracy overblown by the
media. THIS IS GOD’S JUDGMENT! WE SHOULD TAKE IT SERIOUSLY! But to look to our wisdom concerning this
virus is no different than trusting our Wisdom to save us from our sins.
Yet, we see our total
depravity. God sent this judgment upon
us in the first place because men are trusting man rather than God. Yet, in the midst of this judgement man
continues to look to man to save ourselves from it rather than to God. That is total depravity in action!
CHRIST IS THE BANNER BY WHOM GOD’S PEOPLE ARE SAVED
Psalm 60: 4: Thou hast given a banner to them that fear
thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. 5: That thy beloved
may be delivered; save with thy right hand, and hear me. 6: God hath
spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the
valley of Succoth. 7: Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine;
Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver; 8:
Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia,
triumph thou because of me. 9: Who will
bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom? 10: Wilt
not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off? and thou, O God, which
didst not go out with our armies?
God raised up David
as king over Israel so that they fought under his banner rather than Saul’s. Doing so they prospered. In that we see typified Christ our King under
whose banner every believer fights the good fight of faith rather than under
the banner of our sinful flesh.
God Gave Us our
Banner
“Thou hast given a
banner.” God gave his only begotten Son. For you and me who God has turned from sin
and self, Christ is our King. We fight
under Jehovan Nissi, the Lord our Banner.
God gave us our Banner by sovereign and free grace.
God did not give this
Banner to everyone, only “to them that fear thee.” It is not that God gave us Christ because we
first feared him. We fear him because
God first gave us Christ. We love him
because he first loved us. He spread his
Banner of love over us (Song 2:4). That
is why we fear God.
God gave the Banner “that
it might be displayed.” He gave us Christ
that in the preaching of the gospel we might raise up Christ before all like a
flag is raised up. God gave us our
Banner to be displayed. His people do
not hide our Banner by taking the offense out of the cross. God gave us Christ to be displayed in truth
in the preaching of the gospel, offense and all! And God gave us this Banner for each believer
to display to one another, to turn each other to Christ from our flesh in all
our times of need.
God gave us this Banner
“because of the truth.” It is because
God saves only by the Truth. It is
because God defeats our enemies only by the Truth. It is because Christ is the Truth! The oldest translations read “to flee from
the bow.” The Philistines are listed here as the great enemies of Israel. They were masters at archery. The Philistines could shoot a bow with the left
and right hand. God gave a banner to the
children of Israel that the soldiers might see the ensign and flee to the banner
from the enemy. It typifies how Christ exalted
in the preaching of the gospel is the one weapon in our warfare.
2 Corinthians 10: 3: For
though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4: (For the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down of strong holds;) 5: Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that
exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ;
Consider How and For What Reason a Flag was Used on the Battlefield
We do not use an ensign now as they once used it during a
battle. It once served as a weapon. In fact a banner was the most important
weapon of all on the battlefield. How so?
One, in the confusion of war, the soldiers saw the banner
raised on high and rallied to it. They united
beneath it. Christ is exalted in the
preaching of the gospel that God might draw his people to Christ out of this
world and unite us with our brethren. We
need Christ our Banner to be raised on high right now more than ever! Believer look to Christ away from this world
right now!
Two, the banner helped soldiers get their bearings. By
looking to the banner they knew where they were and where they should go on the
battlefield. As we hear Christ exalted
in the gospel we get our bearings in this crazy world. Christ is our guide. We hear him amidst all the voices arguing in
this world. Christ commands us to be
always “casting all your care on him for he careth for you” (1 Pet 5:7).
Three, a sight of their flag instilled strengthened in the
soldiers so that they could fight and defeat their enemies. Remember, when Moses held up the rod? The LORD fought for Israel and prevailed against
the Amalekites. But when the rod came
down, the enemy prevailed. As Christ is
exalted in the gospel Christ is our Strength.
He fights for us. Christ defeats
our enemies within and without. As we
hear the news report in our day, we become filled with doubts and fears. But as we behold Christ exalted in the
preaching of the gospel Christ removes our doubts and fears. He assures us in heart that the battle is not
ours but his! “We are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Rom
8:37).
Fourthly, the banner intimidated the enemy by showing
that Israel was still in the fight.
Believer Satan and all our enemies are afraid of Christ. The apostle Peter said, “Who resist stedfast
in the faith” (1 Pet 5: 9). Flee to Christ
and the devil will flee from us.
Fifthly, the banner was raised as a declaration of
victory. As Christ is exalted in the
gospel we are reminded that the victory has already been won. Christ has accomplished our warfare. The Lord has rewarded his people double for all
our sins. By Christ we have free justification
from all our sins; redemption from the curse of the law; eternal life so that
we can never again be lost. Christ is the
Captain of our Warfare! (Is 40: 1-2)
Brethren, in the
midst of the confusion in this world right now, look up to Christ our Banner, flee
from carnal weapons, flee from our own vain flesh, flee to Christ our Banner.
How Does God Do This
For Us as our Banner is Exalted?
As our Banner is
exalted Christ intercedes with the Father for each of his redeemed. Christ says to the Father, “That
thy beloved may be delivered; save with thy right hand, and hear me.” Christ is God’s beloved and all his elect
are beloved in him. Therefore, Christ pleads
God’s own love. He pleads God’s
glory—"save with thy right hand, and hear me.” God’s right hand is Christ our King. Therefore, Christ pleads his own
righteousness by which we are made the righteousness of God in him. Christ pleads
his own blood by which are sins are put away.
And God always hears his Son and delights in him.
Then Christ, being
the Mediator, comes to us to give us a word from the Father that we might be
comforted. Christ says to us, “God
hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice.”
God’s promise to David is a type of God’s promise to Christ. God said, “Once have I sworn by my holiness
that I will not lie unto David” (Ps 89:35). God will not lie to Christ his Son. He has sworn by himself—by his holiness—because
he can swear by no greater. Since this
is God’s covenant promise to Christ, this is God’s covenant promise to all his elect
in Christ. Since this is Christ’s
rejoicing, this every believer’s rejoicing in Christ
2 Corinthians 1:20: For
all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God
by us.
Christ declares to every believer what God the Father promises
Christ: that all who Christ redeemed are his and all shall be called out of
this world to faith in Christ—"I will divide Shechem, and mete out the
valley of Succoth. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the
strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver.” Under Saul these were all divided by the symbolical
earthquake caused by man’s vain way. Now,
Shechem on the west, Succoth on the east of Jordan, Gilead and Manasseh on the
east and Ephraim and Judah on the west are all united. Man’s way divides. But in Christ there is no separation, only unity. Christ shall call all his elect, Jew and
Gentile and make us one.
Also, Christ declares to us that all our enemies are conquered
and serving his purpose. The Gentiles here stand for all our enemies. He speaks of Israel’s three worst enemies to
show us all our worst enemies are conquered—"Moab is my washpot; over
Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia, triumph thou because of me. Who will bring me into the strong city? who
will lead me into Edom? Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off? and thou,
O God, which didst not go out with our armies?”
Brethren, as assuredly as God cast us off those who trust in man, God
shall save all who trust his Son. The battle
is not yours but God’s! Did God go with David and give him the
victory? Yes, indeed!
1 Chronicles 18: 1:
Now after this it came to pass, that David smote the Philistines,…2: And he
smote Moab; and the Moabites became David’s servants, and brought gifts…5:
And…David slew of the Syrians two and twenty thousand men. 6:…the Syrians
became David’s servants, and brought gifts. Thus the LORD preserved
David whithersoever he went.
David pictures
Christ.
Isaiah 63:1: Who is
this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is
glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that
speak in righteousness, mighty to save.
Brethren, Christ has
conquered our enemies. When David conquered
those enemies he brought all their weapons, their gold and their silver to
Jerusalem to be used by his people in the worship of God. Christ says to you and me, “Moab is my
washpot.” Even the vessels of dishonor,
the non-elect reprobate, have been conquered by Christ. He is using them serve him in accomplishing
his purpose of calling out and preserving his elect.
Psalm 2: 1: Why do the
heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?...6: Yet have I set my king
upon my holy hill of Zion. 7: I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said
unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 8: Ask of me,
and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the
uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 9: Thou shalt break
them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
But even amongst the
Gentiles, God shall save all his elect.
For example, Ruth was a Moabites.
All of us who Christ’s saves were enemies in our minds by wicked
works. But Christ reconciled us to God even
when we were enemies. Being then reconciled
friends to God, we can be certain Christ shall save us (Rom 5: 6-11).
LOOK TO CHRIST AND
TRIUMPH
Psalm 60: 11: Give us help from trouble: for vain is
the help of man. 12: Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that
shall tread down our enemies.
When the Spirit of God
exalts Christ in our hearts, bringing us to look to our Banner, we cry out to
him for salvation as we repent from ourselves—"Give us help from
trouble: for vain is the help of man.” We hear our cry back up in verses 1 &
2, “O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been
displeased; O turn thyself to us again. 2: Thou hast made the earth to tremble;
thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.”
Brethren, Christ alone is the great Healer, the Repairer
of the Breach. There is no remedy but by
returning to the Lord with repentance, faith, and prayer beseeching him to
return to us. If we can do so by God’s grace then God has already brought us under
Christ our Banner to trust Christ alone.
And when the Spirit of God turns us from ourselves and from man to
Christ our King, as we go forth fighting under his banner—"Through God
we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.”
So, believer, let’s hear God! The teaching of this Psalm is that all things
are Christ’s. He has conquered all. He
shall call out all his elect and unites us in him. He shall use even the reprobate to do
it. So, believer, having Christ, all
things are yours. Therefore, in the
midst of this world today, God says to us,
1 Corinthians 3: 21: Therefore
let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 22: Whether Paul, or
Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or
things to come; all are yours; 23: And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.
Amen!