Psalm 60 v 3 – 4

3 Thou Hast shewed thy people hard things: thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. 4 Thou hast given a Banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.

You should be truly astonished. When we held high the banner of the Lord, we were a powerful, Respected and feared Nation, blessed by God, with justice, power and peace.Children were raised with a knowledge of right from wrong: women were exulted and praised as mothers and wives: the old, the crippled and weak were respected and loved.

The further we have moved away from God the more impoverished, ignorant  and violent we have become as a Nation.We see the modern virtues in stark relief – the sex, the sleaze and the lies.

There’s a lesson there.

God gives us a Standard – a banner is a metaphor for a standard – below which we are bound to fail God, above which we serve God in a manner and way in which He wants us to. Upon the Banner of God is written His law, commandments and statutes.

For Christians these are written, by His power, onto our heart. No-one callinbg themselves a Christian can do anything other than follow the laws, commandments and statutes of God. For how shall we judge our own personal actions? How shall we judge the leaders we are to select? How are we to operate a society, other than by a satndard which reflects all that is good, other than by reference to God, whose law, commandments and statutes are written in a handy, easy to use form, in the Old Testament, and given by Christ to the Christian man.