Psalm 60:4

Verse 4. Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee. Perhaps the delivery of a banner was anciently esteemed an obligation to protect, and that the psalmist might consider it in this light, when, upon a victory over the Syrians and Edomites, after the public affairs of Israel had been in a bad state, he says, Thou hast shewed thy people hard things, etc. Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee. Though thou didst for a time give up thine Israel into the hands of their enemies, thou hast now given them an assurance of thy having received them under thy protection. Thomas Harmer (1715-1788), in "Observations on Divers Passages of Scripture."

Verse 4. Thou hast given a banner, etc. Thou hast given us by the recent victory, after our prostrate condition, a banner of triumph to lift up (so the Hebrew), because of thy faithfulness to thy promise. Truth here answers to God's holiness ( Psalms 60:6 ). So long as soldiers see their banner uplifted, they flock round it with confidence. But when it is prostrate their spirits and hopes fall. The banner is a pledge of safety, and a rallying point to those who fight under it. A. R. Faussett.

Verse 4. Thou hast given a banner, etc. The psalmist compares the salvation which the Lord bestows upon his people to a highly excellent banner, which serves as a signal, to one lying prostrate in his misery, to rise up, with an allusion perhaps to Numbers 21:8 . "And the Lord said to Moses, Make thee a serpent, and set it upon a standard pole; and it happened that every one who was bitten, and looked at it, lived." At any rate, that passage in which the serpent is a symbol of the healing power of God, may serve to illustrate the passage before us. Compare heal its breaches. E. W. Hengstenberg.

Verse 4. A banner, which is a sign or instrument: --

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 4. The banner of the gospel.