“You have shown Your people hard things: You have made us to drink the wine of astonishment. You have given a banner to those who fear You, that it may be displayed because of the Truth. Selah.” – (Psalm 60:4)
The context of Psalm 60 is warfare. God allowed His people to experience the fruits of rebellion from arrogant, stiff-necked rulers who wanted nothing to do with God. It wasn’t the utopia of atheism they imagined. Rather, they found themselves overtaken by enemies without and governed by injustice, deception, and murderous abuse of power within. But during it all, God gave a flag to those who loved Him, to display for His coming victory.
God doesn’t shield us from seeing the consequences of rebellion. He lets us experience its bitter fruit to hate it and fight against it. The first time this word “banner” was used in the Bible, it described the “pole” that Moses put the brass serpent on when the Israelites complained against God in the wilderness. Everyone who was bitten began to die, but all who looked upon the serpent-on-the-pole, in repentance and faith, lived.
Years later, Jesus explained to Nicodemus… “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” – (John 3:14-16).
As we walk into 2023, our banner is the empty Cross. The One who came to die, came also to reign in righteousness. His promise to us is… “Through our God we shall do valiantly: He it is who shall tread down our enemies.”
Fly your flag.
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