The Banner of Truth

Dr. Ryan Swale is pastor of Immanuel URC in Jordan, Ontario, and a graduate of Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary who wrote his dissertation on "The Imprecatory Pastor: A Practical Theology of the Imprecatory Psalms."

Psalm 60 is perhaps not a psalm many of us have given much thought to. But, in many ways, is a psalm that those who desire to see the church of God revived would do well to familiarize themselves with. The occasion, the superscription tells us, was when David strove with Aram-Naharaim and Aram-Zobah, and when Joab struck down 12,000 of Edom in the Valley of Salt (the events described in 2 Samuel 8). Yet surprisingly, the psalm begins with a bitter lament over how God has rejected his people and broken their defenses.

What is going on? Does this psalm help us to “read between the lines,” as if the victories of 2 Samuel 8 included unrecorded setbacks and defeats. That is the position of many commentators. However, many older commentators (like Calvin, Henry, and Dickson) believed a more probable explanation was that David, now at the beginning of his conquest, was lamenting the condition of the nation under Saul before him. Thus, Psalm 60 reflects the prayer of David, in a period of decline, praying for brighter days.

Charles Spurgeon says, in his commentary on Psalm 60, “So far gone was Israel that only God’s interposition could preserve it from utter destruction… How often have we seen churches in this condition… and how suitable is the prayer before us, in which the extremity of the need is used as an argument for help….”[i] He compared the warfare in which David and the church of old were involved with the spiritual battle in which we are involved. And, commenting on verse 4 and the “banner of truth,” he called for the church, in these modern days of warfare, to unfurl its banners to the breeze with confident joy.[ii]

Nearly a century after Spurgeon wrote those words, his commentary on Psalm 60 became the inspiration for the name of the Reformed publishing ministry, The Banner of Truth. In reading his commentary, its founders were inspired, in their age of spiritual declension, to return to the truth of God’s Word and unfurl its banners with confident joy. They understood Psalm 60 as a psalm about revival – and in particular, a revival of the truth of God’s Word.[iii]

So, as we pray for God to revive his church in a similar day of spiritual decline, we do well to turn to Psalm 60 to guide our prayer. I believe it gives us five lessons on revival and the mission of the church.

First, Psalm 60 teaches us that revival begins with calling on the name of the Lord in humble repentance. We see this in verses 1 through 3, where David admits that God is angry with them, and they are in need of his restoring grace. There is implied throughout the unfaithfulness of God’s people who have therefore been unsuccessful in the war they wage. Perhaps we can learn from this, as Harry Reeder observed in his book on church revitalization, that “sometimes churches are stagnant or declining because there is sin in the camp… There is a need for corporate confession because the body as a whole has not faithfully followed God’s Word.”[iv] Often, there is a connection between God’s blessing on the church’s labors and the faithfulness of the church. So, the first lesson of Psalm 60 is that revival begins with calling upon the name of the Lord in humble repentance.

Second, revival requires repairing the fractures within the church. Verse 2 says that God has torn the land open, and prays for him to restore its fractures. Several of the older commentators who believed this lament reflected the condition of the nation under Saul note how, during that period, the people were divided amongst themselves, and thus were weakened and exposed. They needed a banner under which to unite if they were going to be successful in their mission. So it is with the church. Iain Murray, co-founder of The Banner of Truth, in his classic work on Revival and Revivalism, says, “A narrow party spirit cannot coexist with a larger giving of the Spirit whose communion extends to the whole body of Christ… Exclusive attention to denominational interests [or distinctives] may prevail among Christians in a period of spiritual decline; [but] it never does so in days of enlarged blessing…”[v] The church that is seeking revival needs to unite together under the banner of the gospel.

Indeed, that is what we see in verses 4 through 8 where we see that revival requires uniting around the Word and promises of God, and pleading them. In the midst of the sad state of the church in verses 1 through 3, David says God has given a banner of truth to his people, that his beloved ones may be delivered. And it seems that that banner is the promises recorded in verses 6 through 8, where David recounts the land promises given to the patriarchs. Verse 7 also includes a reference to the promise in Gen. 49 that the scepter would not depart from Judah. David is reflecting on God’s promises to expand the borders of Israel under his king. Thus, he teaches us to plead the promises of God. As Edwards said, “That which God abundantly makes the subject of his promises [the salvation of the nations], God’s people should abundantly make the subject of their prayers.”[vi]

That is what David leads the church in doing in verses 6 through 8 – praying for the expansion of God’s kingdom, to inherit the nations. Though the method of our warfare is different, we should see the connection between Israel inheriting the land under David, and the church inheriting the nations through the preaching of the gospel. As we proclaim this good news under our king, we plead the promises of God for the nations to be given to his Son.

This leads to a fourth lesson, in verses 9 through 12, that revival also requires a human response to God’s divine promises. Though God had promised that the nations would be given to them, David does not simply pray and then sit on his hands. But he says, “Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? … With God, we shall do valiantly.” He reminds us here of William Carey who famously said, before his departure for the mission field, that we should expect great things from God, and attempt great things for God. Pleading God’s promises should never lead to inactivity, but should lead us to go forth in his power.

Then, fifth, as we do that, verse 11 also reminds us that revival requires resisting worldly means and power to accomplish our goals. David doesn’t seek to advance the kingdom through worldly mechanisms, but seeks to do God’s work in God’s way. So must we resist, for example, the revival-ism that Iain Murray and The Banner of Truth stood against, not to mention the ways that the church seeks to advance God’s kingdom through reliance on worldly power. But Psalm 60 calls us to depend on the help of no man, but the man, Christ Jesus!

We call upon him in humble repentance, acknowledging our sin and trusting in his blood (calling others to do the same). We repent of our petty divisions and seek to make his gospel central. We unite around the promises he has made to us in the gospel, pleading them in prayer. And then we don’t merely expect great things from him, but attempt great things for him – in his power, and by his means. May David’s prayer in Psalm 60 teach us to pray and labor for genuine revival, and for the coming of God’s kingdom and the inheritance of the nations.

[i] Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, vol. 2, 28.

[ii] While the ESV renders verse 4, “You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow,” a better rendering is “that it may be displayed because of truth” (NKJV).

[iii] https://banneroftruth.org/us/about/the-story-of-banner/

[iv] Harry Reeder, From Embers to a Flame, 53.

[v] Iain Murray, Revival & Revivalism, 26.

[vi] Jonathan Edwards, Praying Together for True Revival (ed. Moore), 74.