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For the director of music. According to sheminith.
A psalm of David.
1Help, LORD, for the godly are no more;
the faithful have vanished from among men.
2Everyone lies to his neighbour;
their flattering lips speak with deception.
3May the LORD cut off all flattering lips
and every boastful tongue
4that says, "We will triumph with our tongues;
we own our lips-- who is our master?"
5"Because of the oppression of the weak
and the groaning of the needy,
I will now arise," says the LORD.
"I will protect them from those who malign them."
6And the words of the LORD are flawless,
like silver refined in a furnace of clay,
purified seven times.
7O LORD, you will keep us safe
and protect us from such people for ever.
8The wicked freely strut about
when what is vile is honored among men.
Psalm 12 concerns the frustration of the godly who live in an ungodly society. First, David expresses his despair at the prevailing evil around him (vv. 1-2); then, David prays that God would silence the wicked (vv. 3-4); God responds to David's prayer (v. 5) and David responds to God's answer with confidence that God is in control (vv. 6-7); finally, David sums up the reason for the depravity of society (v. 8).
1Help, LORD, for the godly are
no more;
the faithful have vanished from among men.
2Everyone lies to his neighbour;
their flattering lips speak with deception.
3May the LORD cut off all flattering lips
and every boastful tongue
4that says, "We will triumph with our tongues;
we own our lips-- who is our master?"
David begins this psalm by exclaiming, "Help. LORD..." David's cry for help is desperate and emphatic. In his desperation, he turns to the proper place for help: the Lord of the universe. For some, the words "Help, LORD" are the only ones spoken to their God. They neglect God in worship, they neglect Him in daily prayer, they neglect Him in songs of thanksgiving, but they always remember to cry "Help, Lord" in times of trouble.
The reason for David's cry for help is that he perceives that "the godly are no more" and "the faithful have vanished from among men." Many err in this. They believe in their pride that they are the only who are righteous. They think that their mode of worship is the only true one, and so, they conclude that they are the last of the faithful. This is never true, though. God always saves for Himself a remnant of faithful.
Elijah made the same mistake. In a lapse of faith, he fled in haste from Jezebel. When God asked, "What are you doing here, Elijah?", Elijah replied: "I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me." But God answered: "I reserve seven thousand in Israel" (I Kings 19:13,14,18). No matter how gloomy things seem, God is in control and has preserved a remnant. As Christ told us, the gates of hell will not overcome the church (Matt. 16:18).
We can understand David's (and Elijah's, for that matter) frustration, though. He looks around and sees no godly person, no one who is faithful, no one praising the Lord. Then he sees the result of the disdain for God in the deceit between neighbors. Brotherly love vanishes when the love for God vanishes. David sees "everyone [lying] to his neighbor", "their flattering lips speak[ing] with deception." This is a natural result in a society that rejects God. How can we expect to treat our neighbors with love when we cannot even love God, who has done so much for us?
David sees the deterioration of society, so he prays to God to intervene in the situation. He prays that God would halt the rhetoric of those who turn their backs on Him. The wickedness of those around David is displayed in their "flattering lips" and "boastful tongue". As Christ pointed out: "[O]ut of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matt. 12:34). The speech of the wicked proves the attitude of their hearts. Their "flattering lips" demonstrate their contempt for man; their "boastful tongues" demonstrate their contempt for God.
Flattery is an act of selfishness and hatred toward our neighbor. The motive of the flatterer is always, through deception, to secure some advantage. When flattery arises, a seduction is imminent. Flattery is not only a sin by the flatterer, but it induces in the flattered the sin of pride. We must beware. Kind words all around imply no depth of brotherhood.
Pride is an act of defiance against God. Self-sufficiency is the foundation for the ungodly; pride is the basis of all ungodliness. The proud believe that they do not need God and they do not see themselves as being accountable to any higher authority. The boastful tongue says, as here, "We will triumph with our tongues; we own our lips--who is our master?" The self-sufficient see no limit to their wickedness, saying boldly, "We will triumph." They do not realize, however, that God, who will gain the ultimate victory, has the situation well in hand. The proud see themselves as owing no debt to God, saying, "We own our lips." They ignore the great debt that they owe to God due to their sin. None of us owns our body. As Paul declares: "You are not your own; you were bought at a price" (I Cor. 6:19-20), bought (that is) by the blood of Christ. The proud see themselves as accountable to no one, asking rhetorically, "Who is our master?" However, claiming that God is not their master does not make it so. God is Lord over all, even over those who do not acknowledge His Lordship.
5"Because of the oppression of
the weak
and the groaning of the needy,
I will now arise," says the LORD.
"I will protect them from those who malign them."
6And the words of the LORD are flawless,
like silver refined in a furnace of clay,
purified seven times.
7O LORD, you will keep us safe
and protect us from such people for ever.
Here, God answers David's prayer. Although it is not always apparent to us, the Lord sees injustice and oppression, and acts upon it. He hears the cries of weak, even the unintelligible "groaning of the needy", and in His time, He will "arise". Oftentimes, if we cannot recognize that God is working in the situation, we mistakenly conclude that He doesn't know of our suffering, or that He doesn't care about our suffering, or that He is powerless to act to remedy our suffering. Nevertheless, God is in control of every situation, working each circumstance, even our suffering, according to the wisdom of His will. We, even God's children, do suffer, but we suffer within the will of God. "[T]here is [a] reason why the good are afflicted with temporal calamities--the reason which Job's case exemplifies: that the human spirit may be proved, and that it may be manifested with what fortitude of pious trust, and with how unmercenary a love, it cleaves to God."[Footnote #18]
No, our sufferings do not prove the absence of God, but rather, the results of our sufferings prove the presence of God through our sufferings. God has promised, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (Heb. 13:5), and so He is with us even in the worst of times. We suffer in this world so that we might not cling to the things of this world, but rather cling to God and the things of God, longing for the treasures He has promised. Both the righteous and the wicked suffer the same ills, but there is a great difference in that God is with us in our sufferings. "Wherefore, though good and bad men suffer alike, we must not suppose that there is no difference between the men themselves, because there is no difference in what they both suffer. For even in the likeness of the sufferings, there remains an unlikeness in the sufferers; and though exposed to the same anguish, virtue and vice are not the same thing. For as the same fire causes gold to glow brightly, and chaff to smoke...so the same violence of affliction proves, purges, clarifies the good, but damns, ruins, exterminates the wicked. And thus it is that in the same affliction the wicked detest God and blaspheme, while the good pray and praise."[Footnote #19]
So, in this, we see that "the words of the LORD are flawless." "God's words are pure from all error, all mistake, all equivocation, all deception, all encouragement to sin, all weakness."[Footnote #20] What God says is pure and perfect, tested and tried, "like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times." David knew this, and affirmed it even though he suffered greatly, and often, in his life.
8The wicked freely strut about
when what is vile is honored among men.
David ends the psalm with a reflection concerning the reason for the ungodliness of society in the first place. Our sufferings are not the result of random events that somehow lead to affliction. No, our sufferings and the depraved state of society have a root cause: "what is vile is honored among men." We all share in the guilt of this to some extent. We, even Christians, honor "what is vile". We esteem the rich and strong, scorning the meek and humble. We chase after desires of our flesh, at the expense of the pursuit of spiritual growth, and we reap the consequences as "the wicked freely strut about." They will continue to strut about until the pure at heart are "honored among men."
And so Lord, let the values of society change, beginning with us. Give us the strength to honor what You honor, and to value what You value. We praise You for the fact that Your words are flawless and that we can trust in them and rest in them. Be glorified in our lives and continue to work in them, even through our suffering, to purify us and to bring us into a closer relationship with You. In the name of Jesus, we pray these things, Amen.
(Our study in the Psalms will continue in the next issue)
18. Augustine, The City of God, Book I, Chap. 9.
19. Augustine, op. cit., Ch. 8.
20. Plumer, Studies in the Book of Psalms, pg. 189.
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