BANNERS SET UP

E.C.Burr

Psalm 60: 4, 5 (to "delivered"); 20: 5 (to "banners")

The position of the word "Selah" in verse 4 of Psalm 60 is unusual. Mr Darby tells us in a note earlier in Psalms (see Ps 3: 2) how many times it occurs in the books of Psalms; as he says, the word is said to mean a pause, though it may have other meanings. Frequently it occurs at the end of a Psalm; generally it occurs at the end of a sentence. Here it occurs in the middle of a sentence. That, I think, is interesting because it occurs between something that God has done and the reason for it. It suggests to us that we do well to take account of things that God has done, then to wait for His explanation of why He has done them. As we were hearing, the Lord is the great explainer of things, and we do well to take account of that; and, if He is the explainer, maybe often we need a 'Selah' until the explanation comes.

The way in which verse 4 is frequently quoted suggests that we often think that it is enough on its own: "Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth". We often hear that quoted, but we do not always hear the Selah and we do not always hear the reason; but God had a reason. This is an interesting Psalm. The heading indicates that David wrote it to teach, and that he had striven with the Syrians of Mesopotamia and the Syrians of Zobah, and Joab had returned and smitten twelve thousand Edomites, and yet the Psalm says that God did not go forth with their armies. It says that they had been cast off and scattered and God had been displeased. It says that God had made the earth tremble and rent it and that " Thou hast shewn thy people hard things; thou hast mad e us to drink the wine of bewilderment" (v.3). It say s at the end of the Psalm, "Wilt not thou, O God, who didst cast us off? and didst not go forth, O God, with our armies? Give us help from trouble". One would have thought that the victory had been enough, but David penetrates further and teaches in relation to it. It may be that when he refers to the beloved ones being delivered he has in mind the people of Israel generally. But we in our day have been through experiences when we have been shown hard things, when we have indeed been made to drink the wine of bewilderment. The Lord is graciously giving us new wine in these days, but we have known the wine of bewilderment, and in that bewilderment some of His beloved ones have come into a situation where they need to be delivered. I trust that each of us carries all those who are the Lord's - "The Lord knows those that are his" (2 Tim 2: 19) - as His beloved ones. If we do not, we begin to fall short of the Lord's own feelings in regard to His own; and I believe that one feeling that the Lord, (and of David as a shepherd understanding prophetically and anticipatively something of what the feelings of Christ as the Good Shepherd would be) would have is that the beloved ones should be delivered. When the lion and the bear came and took a lamb out of the flock David went after them and delivered them out of the mouth of the lion and out of the paw of the bear. The Lord would help us to carry, not only our brethren with whom we have walked, but others that are His in, as we speak, Christendom at large, as His beloved ones; and we would understand that He does things and would then hold us for a moment to pause and reflect on the fact that what He has done, and what He is doing in giving a banner to those that fear Him, is that His beloved ones may be delivered. I think that the Lord would gather us all up in the exercise that His beloved ones may be delivered. This is not to be done, as David's Psalm indicates, by further battle or contention. In a sense the battle and contention is over before David has finished the heading of the Psalm, and the victory and the deliverance is not to be wrought that way, but God has given a banner to those that fear Him "that it may be displayed because of the truth... that thy beloved ones may be delivered". I think the Lord would encourage us that He has given a banner to us, so long as we are among those that fear Him (and we can trust one another in relation to that) "that it may be displayed because of the truth". The banner here clearly represents something that is lifted up, even in untoward circumstances. It is not like the banner in the Song of Songs: "He hath brought me to the house of wine, and his banner over me is love", chap 2: 4. This is not exactly the banner of love, displayed in circumstances of opposition and hostility. The prime element in the banner here would be righteousness, and that is what is needed in the public position. It is needed in relation to the deliverance of His beloved ones; and I suggest that one thing at least that would characterise the banner as a rallying point in this day is that it is distinguished by righteousness.

Righteousness, in a sense, as a word, has had a hard time amongst us. It has been used in ways that have been arbitrary and that scarcely reflected the disposition of God or the righteousness of God, but the Lord works with us and He brings us back to the divine meaning of words, and if we are held in relation to righteousness as understood from the divine point of view we shall have some sense of what it is for this to be a characteristic of the banner that is to be displayed because of the truth. It is to be a rallyingpoint in the midst of confusion, in the midst of bewilderment, something that can be taken account of and can be easily seen. If anywhere a banner is displayed, the purpose is that it should be seen, and we all know that if a flag is flying it is one thing that can be seen. It only needs a slight rustle of wind and it is displayed at large. It becomes prominent even though it may in itself be insignificant; but it is always distinguishable, and the intention is that it should be distinguishable.

I think God would give us to reflect on the nature of the banner that He has given that is to be displayed on account of the truth. It necessarily includes the confession of Jesus as Lord. It involves the acknowledgment of His rights, and in a sense the claiming of His rights. It involves the evangelical testimony to men, that "God ... now enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent" (Acts 17: 30); but it demands also the testimony to the fact that Christ's body is here and that He still has His assembly, and that it is still possible to walk in the light of the assembly. The banner does not include only the individual commitment to Christ and the evangelical testimony that others may come and believe; it involves, and essentially involves, that there is that which is corporate and is intended to be so and is intended to remain. If the brethren reflected on Mr Stoney's ministry they would see how he contended all the time for what was spoken of here last week as Christ's chief interest on earth, and how he brought out in quite a distinctive way the loss to the testimony that occurred when people confined themselves to what was evangelical and gave up testimony as to the assembly. The banner that is displayed because of the truth involves that testimony to the assembly that Christ still has here. Another thing Mr Stoney says is that the assembly involves that He is here bodily where He has been rejected bodily; let us understand that, and His body is still here. The banner that is to be displayed on account of the truth involves and requires that there is that here which is a corporate witness to Christ, and it is displayed because of the truth. It is an interesting thing to discover that persons who are desirous of surrendering some aspect of the truth charge those who seek through the Lord's grace to hold all the truth with maintaining what is sectarian. The falsity of the proposition is manifest once it is stated, but the banner being displayed because of the truth requires that the whole truth be held and that we be committed to it. There is no other basis on which we may expect others to rally alongside, even of ourselves, unless we hold all the truth, because if we make a selection of the truth we leave the door open to others to make the selection that they prefer, and then there is no common ground of fellowship. The only basis of fellowship is the holding of all the truth. Thank God for what has been recovered! Thank God for the light that has been given! Thank God that we have some apprehension of what this banner displays. It is not exactly contemplated in this scripture that it is held, I might say, aggressively or militantly. Those things come in in their own setting, because we have to be set for the defence of the gospel, but the banner is displayed in the spirit of the One who when He Himself was here was indeed God's own banner, displayed on account of the truth, so much so that He could say "I am ... the truth" John 14: 6.

The Lord would point out to us that it is not just that He has given a banner to those that fear Him that it may be displayed on account of the truth, as if things could stop there; He would say, Wait, Selah, and I will explain why I have given you it: it is that My beloved ones may be delivered. This should encourage us. It should encourage us to wait on the Lord even if we think we already have the full explanation of something, but the Spirit, through David, would say, But wait, wait; you may think you have the whole explanation, but wait. And then he adds "That thy beloved ones may be delivered". It will pay us, beloved - I go back again to our brother's word here, I think three weeks ago - to wait on the Lord for His explanation. In fact, if we do not do that we are apt to go off on explanations of our own which tend often to make confusion worse confounded. The display of the banner involves that we are consistent with it that we purify ourselves "Even as he is pure" 1 John 3: 3. I suppose each of us would have to confess that we have not maintained ourselves on the level which self-judgment would require, and we may find that in some word or some action, or some conversation, some sharing of thoughts with other people, perhaps even some sharing of humour or jokes with them, that something has crept in that we know is not consistent with the banner. Then self-judgment leads us to the determination that by the Spirit we will be consistent with it in the future. We all need to beware, while not holding the principles of separation in the kind of formality - I do not say legality - in which they were once held, where the outward thing was everything and what was inward perhaps discounted, that in seeking to maintain things on a more sensitive basis we do not allow ourselves to be drawn into the world which is still characterised by the rejection and crucifixion of our Lord. There is an expression - I think it is in one of the poets - which has come to my mind during the day, as to 'the contagion of the world's slow stain'; and I believe, beloved, especially when we are young, we need to beware of the contagion of the world's slow stain. We may not think there is much of it but we find it infectious, we find it contagious, and we find that the stain spreads. If we take the ground that we will maintain separation on the basis of being sensitive to what the Lord would have, then let us be sensitive to what the Lord would have and let us not give up what we call legality and put nothing in its place. It would be better to be right for literal reasons than not to be right at all, but it would be well to be right because we were sensitively governed by the Spirit. I think that the banner involves that we are here purifying ourselves even as He is pure.

In Psalm 20 it is interesting that in verse 3 there is again the word 'Selah'. There, it comes at the end of a sentence, and even there it seems to mark a slightly surprising transfer of thought. It says, "May he send thee help ... Remember all thine oblations, and accept thy burnt-offering; Selah". Then, "Grant thee according to thy heart, and fulfil all thy counsels". But then, "We will triumph in thy salvation, and in the name of our God will we set up our banners". The Lord would encourage us to do that. He would encourage us individually: "We will set up our banners". God has given a banner, but in His name we will set up our banners. We do not set them up in anybody else's name. We have been drawn into that, beloved. We do not set them up in anyone's name but the name of our God. We do not even set up banners in the name of the recovery. No! We are tempted to do that, to set up a banner and say that the banner is the recovery, we do it in the name of the recovery. We understand what we mean, but the psalmist says "In the name of our God will we set up our banners", and if we do that, if we set up our banners in the name of our God, we have ground to which all His beloved ones may rally. If we set up banners in any other name we are not on ground to which anyone else may rally, but "In the name of our God will se set up our banners".

Well beloved, let us be encouraged to do it. These things are simple. Sometimes they are so simple that the simplicity seems to provide us with an easy way of evading what the Scripture would suggest to us. Let us not find things so easy that we pass them by. "In the name of our God will we set up our banners". You can set up your banner even by the way you carry yourself in the world. You need not say anything. I have known men in the past say to a believer that they recognised that he was different merely by the way he walked into the office. What a thing to say to somebody is "In the name of our God will we set up our banners". Well, let us be encouraged to do it and, as we have waited on the Lord for the explanation of why He has given us a banner, we would understand that it is that His beloved ones - think of that! - that His beloved ones may be delivered. As to them, He may for the moment have, as He is in Revelation, to be girt around the breasts with a golden girdle, maybe His affections have to be restrained; but the affections are there and in one sense the affection is felt all the more keenly because of the necessity of present restraint. But: "That his beloved ones may be delivered". It would be a great thing, beloved, to think that the Lord would in any way give us any part in their deliverance by our committing ourselves to setting up banners in the name of our God.

London

23 July 1974