Last week, we worked our way through Psalm 11. That psalm was written for people to pray, when society is completely falling apart. The foundations are being destroyed, and it looks hopeless. The wicked are too many, and too powerful, and can't be stopped. But in the face of this, the psalmist had total confidence in God. He has taken refuge in Yahweh. And what kind of God is Yahweh? Yahweh is a God who hates the wicked and the violent. He will rain sulfur and brimstone down on the evil doers, and put an end to them. And the upright, in the end, will see God's face.
As we start reading in Psalm 12, today, it's going to have much the same feel. Whoever organized the psalms, and put them in their current order, often grouped them by feel or topic. And here, we kind of naturally read Psalm 12, as a continuation of Psalm 11.
So as we begin today, imagine, again, that society is falling apart. Imagine that the wicked rule, at every level of society. And imagine that things look pretty hopeless.
Of/for the director, upon the eighth. A psalm of/for David.
(1) Help, Yahweh!,
because the loyal one has ceased to exist,
because the faithful ones have vanished from humanity.
Normally in the psalms, people take a minute to kind of get God's attention. They ask God to hear them, to answer them, to see them.
Here, the psalmist gets right to business. There's an urgency to this plea, and so he jumps right in. "HELP!"
This prayer, for help, is the most basic prayer to all people. We've all prayed this, at one point or another. Usually, I'm guessing, in some type of emergency. This is my go-to prayer when I'm about to do something stupid while driving, or when something terrible is going to happen in about 3 seconds. "Help, God."
Here, the psalmist gives two related reasons, why he needs God to help.
The psalmist first says, God needs to help "because the loyal one has ceased to exist."
"The loyal one" is someone who acts rightly toward others, and toward God, within an existing relationship. Ruth shows "loyalty" to her mother-in-law, Naomi, when she chooses death over life, and goes back to Israel with her. Loyalty is something you show your friends, and your family, and God.
And to the extent that all of Israel is part of God's family-- that all people are brothers and sisters to each other-- this is true for how you would relate to Israel as a whole. You have an obligation to be loyal to your customers, to your coworkers, to the people you pass on the street. There is a right way to live toward all these people, given your relationship to them. And that way, is one of loyalty.
And the psalmist looks around, and he sees that this kind of person has ceased to exist. They aren't just endangered; they are extinct.
The psalmist then talks about all this a second way, in line 2:
(1) Help, Yahweh!,
because the loyal one has ceased to exist,
because the faithful ones have vanished from humanity.
There was a time when you could walk around, and see loyal and faithful people. But they've vanished. They're just gone.
In their place, the psalmist sees a different kind of person. Verse 2:
(2) Lies/deceit they speak-- each one to his neighbor-- a flattering lip;
With a double heart/mind they speak.
There is nothing wrong with praising people for doing good. But that praise, needs to be sincere. You can't use words to falsely build people up, and make them like you, and get them to do what you want, only to stab them in the back later. Praise needs to be single-hearted-- sincere. And not double-hearted.
Society as a whole, stands or falls, based on whether or not people are truthful. And if the past year has taught us nothing else, it's taught us that. Who do we know, who will speak the truth to us? The list is pretty small. Joe Rogan. Ron Johnson. Robert Malone. Tucker Carlson. People who are honest, and open-minded, and truthful about what they know, and what they don't know, have become heroes.
And the psalmist around, and doesn't see anyone like that. There is no one who will tell the truth. Everyone's a liar.
In verses 3-4, the psalmist asks God to do something about this. This is how he unpacks his opening plea, that God would "help":
(3) May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue speaking great things,
(4) [the ones] who say,
"By our tongues, we make strong.
Our lips are our iron tool.
Who [is] Lord/Master over us?
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On "iron tool":
English Bibles usually read "et" as "with." "Our lips are with us." Goldingay suggests it means "sword" here, which makes much better sense. Except it's used consistently to describe an iron tool, not a weapon. A mechanic has his tools, as does a doctor, as does the liar.
James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
908 III. ??? (?e?): n.[masc.]; = Str 855; TWOT 192a—LN 6.4–6.9 cutting tool of iron: plowshare, mattock, adze, i.e., a digging implement (1Sa 13:20, 21; Isa 2:4; Joel 4:10[EB 3:10]; Mic 4:3+), note: BDB reads 2Ki 6:5 ???? ???????? (?e?- bar•zel) mattock, i.e., adze-head of iron
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The easiest way for me to think about these verses, is think about mainstream media. News anchors know that they have incredible lips. They look in the mirror, and pucker up, and admire them. Their lips let them weave a story that persuades almost everyone, about almost everything. Their lips are like a garden tool, that let them accomplish whatever they set out to do.
And almost everything that comes out of their mouths is either flattery, or lies. They maybe tell you that 700,000 people have died "from" covid, not "with" covid. They tell you that ivermectin is horse paste, and dangerous. They tell you masks don't work. And then, actually, they do. And then, actually, they were never really effective. They tell you the vaccine is 95% effective. And then it's 70%, and then 50%, and then you actually need multiple boosters, but that'll for sure work. They tell you it's safe, and any side effects are rare. And then you see the leaked DOD data, thanks to Ron Johnson. Or you listen to the earnings calls of life insurance companies, and how their payouts have skyrocketed since the booster came out. Quite a coincidence.
The media's goal, with a few exceptions, isn't to tell you the truth. They have a symbiotic relationship with the government, and big pharma. Their goal is to make you docile. It's to make you willing to give up your rights and freedoms. And the goal, for them, is to make a ton of money off ads.
And in all of this, they think they are the rightful lords. They are the ones who deserve high ratings. They don't understand the popularity of people like Joe Rogan, or Tucker Carlson.
If you live in a society like this, what do you need?
What the psalmist would like, is for God to cut off all flattering lips, the tongues speaking great things. "One by one, God, please topple these news anchors, and fake scientists. May they fall in disgrace, and scandal. May their lies be exposed. May they never be seen or heard again."
That's a good prayer. It's one you could pray for everyone who has built their career on lies.
You could pray this for a dirty lawyer, who uses the law to his benefit to take advantage of you and your neighbors. He has money, and connections, and you don't. How do you defeat him? You pray.
Or you could pray this for a politician, who says nice things about all kinds of people in public, but will fight dirty when the microphones are shut off.
And if you pray this for news anchors, or "scientists," or lawyers, or politicians, you aren't praying it out of spite, or to be difficult. You are praying this, because society can't function without honesty. People have to act faithfully toward each other, and loyally, or everything falls apart. And this especially true for people who have a public voice, and/or who have power. All of us have an obligation to each other, to be truth-telling people.
In verse 5, we get something really cool. A prophetic word:
(5) "Because of the violence/oppression of the needy, because of the groaning of the poor, therefore, I shall rise," says Yahweh.
"I shall put [them] in the rescue/salvation they long for."
God himself speaks, in the middle of the psalm. He makes a promise, that He will fix this. He will rise, and He will give the needy the salvation they long for. The days of being exploited are over.
Verse 6:
(6) The words of Yahweh are pure words;
silver refined in a furnace on the ground, refined seven times.
When God makes a promise, his words are entirely reliable. They are pure, sincere, single-hearted. God's words, and the wicked people's words, are worlds apart.
And so the psalmist takes comfort in the prophetic word. If God says He will save the needy, then that's what he will do.
Verse 7-8:
(7) You, Yahweh, will guard them.
You will preserve him from this type of people forever.
(8) All around the wicked roam/wander,
as they lift up worthless things among humanity.
Our psalm ends on this note of confidence. The wicked are everywhere. But God will protect the vulnerable. He will guard them from the lies, and deceit. He will make sure the liars and flatterers fail.
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So what can we learn from this psalm?
Maybe, we should hear it first as a challenge. We need to make sure we are loyal, and faithful, and truthful, people. Our "yes" is our "yes;" our "no" is our "no." If the psalmist was looking around this room, hopefully he wouldn't pray this prayer.
The other thing this psalm does, I think, is encourage us to pray bigger. If society as a whole is falling apart, then we should pray. God hates lies, and deceit. God hates when the poor and needy are exploited by the rich and powerful.
And if we understand that, and believe it, we will pray with confidence. We are praying about something near and dear to God's heart.
So don't despair. Don't act like this world is too broken for God to fix. Don't believe that it will inevitably go down the toilet.
And don't let it. Evangelicals tend to assume that the world is slowly falling apart, and that Jesus will come back just in the nick of time. And so they tend to be pessimists about the world. When the world is falling apart, they nod, and they get excited, and they say, "Jesus is coming soon."
This world doesn't have to be so broken. All it needs, is for God to act. If He cuts off all lying lips, and exposes the truth, everything else will be sorted out. God's promise, in verse 5, can be our promise:
(5) "Because of the violence/oppression of the needy, because of the groaning of the poor, therefore, I shall rise," says Yahweh.
"I shall put [them] in the rescue/salvation/help they long for."
Translation:
Of/for the director, upon the eighth. A psalm of/for David.
(1) Help, Yahweh!,
because the loyal one has ceased to exist,
because the faithful ones have vanished from humanity.
(2) Lies/deceit they speak-- each one to his neighbor-- a flattering lip;
With a double heart/mind they speak.
(3) May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue speaking great things,
(4) [the ones] who say,
"By our tongues, we make strong.
Our lips [are] our iron tool.
Who [is] Lord/Master over us?
(5) "Because of the violence/oppression of the needy, because of the groaning of the poor, therefore, I shall rise," says Yahweh.
"I shall put [them] in the rescue/salvation they long for."
(6) The words of Yahweh are pure words;
silver refined in a furnace on the ground, refined seven times.
(7) You, Yahweh, will guard them.
You will preserve him from this type of people forever.
(8) All around the wicked roam,
as they lift up worthless things among humanity.
