Psalms 12

To the chief musician on sheminith, a psalm of David

12:Title Sheminith was probably a musical term.⚜

Help, LORD,

for the godly man ceases,

for the faithful fail from

among the children of men.

2 Everyone speaks vanity

with his neighbour.

They speak with flattering lips

and with a double heart.

12:1-2 Sometimes the servant of God must stand all alone – Gen 7:1; Ex 32:9-14; 34:2-3; 1 Kings 18:22; 19:10; Jer 1:17-19; Micah 7:5; 2 Tim 4:16-17. This is very difficult but those who do so will find that in a special way God is their help.⚜

3 The LORD will cut off

all flattering lips,

and the tongue

that speaks proud things,

4 that have said,

“With our tongue we will

prevail.

Our lips are our own.

Who is lord over us?”

5 “Because of the oppression

of the poor,

because of the sighing

of the needy,

I will now arise”,

says the LORD,

“I will set him in safety

from the one who

snorts at him”.

12:5 David the poet here speaks as David the prophet. He has been speaking of men to God. Now he speaks to men of God’s promises. God hears the groans of the helpless and He knows the right time to arise for their help – Ex 3:7-10; Luke 18:7.⚜

6 The words of the LORD are

pure words,

like silver refined

in a furnace of earth,

purified seven times.

12:6 What God says, He will do. His word has been tested in the furnace of men’s experience and proved all through the history of mankind – compare Ps 18:30; 19:8, 10; 119:140; John 17:17; 2 Tim 3:16. There is no mixture of error in God’s Word. This is in contrast with the words of the people in vs 2-4.⚜

7 You will keep them, O LORD,

you will preserve them from this

generation forever.

12:7 Though the situation appears desperate, meditating on the purity of God’s Word will give confident hope for the future.⚜

8 The wicked walk about

on every side,

when the vilest men are exalted.