Darlene Rose

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“And in the name of our God we will set up our banners.” We lift the standard of defiance in the face of the foe, and wave the flag of victory over the fallen adversary. Some proclaim war in the name of one king, and some of another, but the faithful go to war in Jesu’s name, the name of the incarnate God, Immanuel, God with us. The times are evil at present, but so long as Jesus lives and reigns in his church we need not furl our banners in fear, but advance them with sacred courage.
“Jesu’s tremendous name
Puts all our foes to flight;
Jesus, the meek, the angry Lamb
A lion is in fight.”

The above comes from The Treasury of David by Charles Spurgeon; a commentary on Psalm 20:5.

As my fingers listened for Him to speak this morning, I sensed Him wanting me to stop at this verse; particularly “our banners.”

A banner is the first advertisement of what’s inside, and what we stand for. It calls out and draws in. It invites and it warns. Some only need to see colors to know what it means; it doesn’t always need words.

A white flag raised high often means “I surrender” as a country flag raised shows respect for the land we live in. Everyone knows, at least in part, what is meant by the flags raised or banners held high.

In this verse, “our banner” is the one we lift to let everyone know we have obtained victory. We do not let the enemy know we have weakness, we do not let the enemy know we are in fear. But what does Spurgeon also say? “The times are evil at present.” Spurgeon was born in 1834 and died in 1892. The times were evil then, the times are evil now, but we act as though we are living in unique evil times because we haven’t seen such evil in our nation perhaps in our lifetime, so the banners of fear are raised high by many and this is exactly what the enemy has hoped for.

We raise OUR banners of victory! But there is a banner that does not belong to us, but belongs to the Lord Himself.

We may put our banners down at times. We may even signal a white flag of surrender to the enemy out of fear. But there is one banner that never stops going ahead of us, advertising for us, letting the world know who we belong to and who defends us.

That banner is Love.

Song of Solomon 2:4 He brought me to the banqueting house,
And his banner over me was love.

I have nothing to do except remember that His Banner over me is love today, and always. He never takes it down. I may not always see it as the day to day stresses hit me in the face, so I am reminded today that I belong to Him and His Love goes before me and tells the world, even calls out and draws some in.