01/23/2024
We should all read Psalm 12 today!
12 TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO THE SHEMINITH. A PSALM OF DAVID.
1 Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone;
for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
2 Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
3 May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue that makes great boasts,
4 those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail,
our lips are with us; who is master over us?”
5 “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,
I will now arise,” says the LORD;
“I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”
6 The words of the LORD are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.
7 You, O LORD, will keep them;
you will guard us from this generation forever.
8 On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among the children of man.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 12:title–8.
COMMENTARY (see source below)
Psalm 12 is a plea for help in view of the abysmal state of the human race: The psalm begins and ends on the note that the faithful have vanished “from the earth” (12:1) and that evil is praised “throughout the land” (12:8). The psalm is chiastically arranged. Verses 1 and 7–8 form the outer frame: (1) Both refer to the entire earth, (2) both address the Lord in the second person, and (3) both bemoan the fact that the godly are nowhere to be found while the wicked are ubiquitous. The inner frame (12:2–4 and 6) is a third-person address and focuses on the valuation of speech—that of the wicked (12:2–4) and that of the Lord (12:6). The center (12:5) is a first-person address, where the Lord himself speaks.
A radical change takes place between the beginning of the psalm (12:1) with its plea for help in view of the disappearance of the godly from the human race and the end of the psalm (12:7–8) with its confidence that the Lord will help in spite of the pervasiveness of evil throughout the human race. David uses hyperbole in 12:1 to underscore the abysmal state of the race: “The godly are fast disappearing! The faithful have vanished.” This sentiment flows directly out of the previous psalm, which bemoans the collapse of “law and order” (11:3) throughout human society (see 11:4). Part of the reason for this collapse is the rising tide of evil that has almost completely swept away godly and faithful people. Yet, in spite of the overwhelming odds, David is confident that the Lord will protect and preserve the godly.
What generated such confidence? Divine speech! The Lord’s promise to help! The Lord immediately and explicitly answered the cry for help with a promise, “Now I will rise up to rescue them” (12:5). Though the helpless and the poor do not have the power to face their foe, they have the promise of the Divine Warrior—he will rescue them from their oppressors.
But is the Lord’s promise reliable? Can the godly count on it? After all, not all speech is true and trustworthy. Human speech is all too often full of lies, flattery, hypocrisy, and arrogance: “Our lips are our own—who can stop us?” (12:4). Is divine speech any different? Yes! “The LORD’s promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over” (12:6). In the previous psalm the Lord put people in the smelting furnace to test their integrity (11:4–5) and found much impurity that resulted in his just judgment. In Psalm 12 David puts the Lord’s promises in the smelting furnace and finds a perfect purity that results in total confidence.
As we all know, it is one thing to confess that the Lord’s promises are true in times of prosperity, but it is quite another to believe this when times are tough. So Calvin (1979:177) remarks, “It is, therefore, highly necessary for us to cut off the occasion of our distrust; and whenever any doubt respecting the faithfulness of God’s promises steals in upon us, we ought immediately to lift up against it this shield, that the words of the Lord are pure.” We have an even greater assurance than David did as to the fact that the word of the Lord is pure, for we know that the Word is pure. John tells us that “the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness” (John 1:14). And when he was put in the smelting furnace of obedience to the point of death on a cross, he was found to be without alloy (Phil 2:8; Heb 4:15).
In our own day it seems as if the godly have disappeared and the faithful have vanished. But “even though the wicked strut about, and evil is praised throughout the land” (12:8), we too can have confidence that the Lord will protect and preserve us. He has promised to rise up and rescue us, and his word is as reliable as his Word. We have confidence in his promise, because we have seen it fulfilled in part already. He has already risen up once “to take away the sins of many people,” and he will rise up again “to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him” (Heb 9:28). So we wait, confidently trusting his pure promise.
Mark D. Futato, “The Book of Psalms,” in Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 7: The Book of Psalms, The Book of Proverbs (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2009), 64–65.
