Psalm 12
A Cry for Help in a Day of Moral Corruption
This psalm follows in spirit the preceding psalm and is of a similar character: a prayer for the deliverance of the poor and miserable in a time of universal moral corruption, specifically of prevailing faithlessness and boasting. The inscription which accompanies it identifies it as belonging to the time of David when Temple music, singing with accompanying instrumentation, was at its peak. The true people of God were then, as they have always been, a company of saints and martyrs longing for the coming of God, in all ways parallel to the condition of saints in all times, including now, crying “even so come Lord Jesus.”
David combines his talents as psalmist/poet with his gifts of prophecy and carry us from the immediate emotions of suffering saints into the future promise of reward for the righteous and judgment for the wicked. There are elements here of temporal deliverance and judgment coupled with the eternal hope of all true believers, the Final Judgment and Deliverance of God.
Ps 12:1 2
1 Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
2 They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
The first phrase tells us of the nature of the lament. Godly men are so rare as to be (in all practical terms) non-existent, and this problem is one that can only be resolved by God. There are some few left, otherwise there would be no cry but they are few, terribly few.
The word used for ‘godly’ here is a word derived from the concept of ‘one who is firm,’ whose word and meaning is firm, so that one can rely upon it and be certain concerning it. There are similar complaints to be found in other passages of scripture.
Micah 7:2
2 The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. (KJV)
Isa 57:1
1 The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. (KJV)
Jer 7:28
28 But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. (KJV)
Although those who make this complaint (and not from a Pharisaical spirit) would confess that they are greatly, and inappropriately, affected by the prevailing corruption, they prove by their penitence and their cry for help that humanity has not totally and without exception gone into complete depravity.
The specific complaint of David concerns the way that men have become untruthful. They speak with ‘smooth’ words but disguise their true meaning and purpose, that is with a double heart.
This sort of behavior is forbidden to the saint and is rejected in true repentance.
Eph 4:25
25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. (KJV)
Ps 12:3 4
3 The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:
4 Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us? (KJV)
“Flattering lips and a vaunting tongue are one, insofar as the braggart becomes a flatterer when it serves his own self-interest.” (K&D)
This is freedom of speech turned to a depraved and wicked use. Language is powerful, a fact known by God and Satan. Jesus is the Word and God’s revelation to us is written down, the Word of God. But when the wicked tongue throws off the restraint of God’s law, it can powerfully affect the course of life and of the world.
The wicked undertake to throw down the righteous and prevail over them. They flatter the proud and the foolish and then use words to twist truth into error and lies into truth. They demand freedom of speech so that they can work their wickedness. All restraint is attacked, ridiculed, and thrown off.
But such behavior is destined to be judged by God and condemned so as to be destroyed. Freedom of speech is not a sacred right of mankind. Freedom to speak truth is. There is a great difference. The righteous are rightly concerned when the wicked are free to speak lies with no consequential judgment coming to them for it.
Ps 12:5 6
5 For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.
6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
The psalmist hears Jehovah speak, v.5, and adds his ‘amen’ in v.6. The words ‘I will now arise’ reference the fact that God often, for a time, tolerates the wickedness of the wicked, allowing them to pile up judgment against themselves and vindicating the visitation of God against them. God’s silence is also judgment, not the proof that He does not see nor care.
Silver was purified by heating it to the melting and then draining it away from the dross. The purest of silver was heated in this way seven times over to assure that all the impurities were gone. Such is the word of God, without corruption and certainly without the capacity to fail. This ‘rising’ of God to judge is as certain when He declares it as when He actually visits wrath upon the wicked.
Ps 12:7 8
7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
8 The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
Those who are oppressed by the wicked and who cry to God for deliverance will surely be eternally preserved. The tongues of the wicked cannot steal from them what God has provided.
And then, a general observation from one who has seen and experienced government both at its best and its worst. When the wicked (those who use their tongues in the way denounced here) are allowed free reign and are even exalted to places of leadership, they bring their colleagues and co-conspirators with them so that they are everywhere.
But not to worry, saint. Yours is not to remove the wicked but to cling to the Lord and cry out to Him.
— April 14, 2020