"Psalm 12:1-8"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/30/2011 7:34:49 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                                 Focus:  Psalm 12

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                       Reference:  Psalm 12:1-8

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 For the choir director; upon an eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm of David: Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases to be, For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. 2 They speak falsehood to one another; With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak. 3 May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, The tongue that speaks great things; 4 Who have said, "With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?" 5 “Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise," says the LORD; "I will set him in the safety for which he longs." 6 The words of the LORD are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times. 7 You, O LORD, will keep them; You will preserve him from this generation forever. 8 The wicked strut about on every side When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.”

 

            In his introduction to Psalm 12 Dr. Wiersbe writes that “Our ability to speak and write words is a precious gift of God, and this psalm deals with the right and wrong use of that gift.”

 

            The Righteous—Despairing Words (v.-1):  “1 For the choir director; upon an eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm of David: Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases to be, For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.”

           

            We see in this first verse that David is crying out to the Lord that there are not enough godly men in Israel.  This was not the first time that we will see this type of cry from the pages of Scripture, for Elijah thought that he was the only one left in Israel that worshiped the true God, and there are others who thought this too.  Back in Genesis 12:1-3 we see the calling of Abram whose name was later changed to Abraham, and that calling was actually for the nation of Israel and God gave to Abraham a promise saying I will bless those who bless you and those that curse you I will curse and then the Lord adds and all the families of the earth will be blessed by you.  I am sure that David knew this promise that God had given to Israel, and now that David was their leader he must have feared that this was not happening and so he cries out to the Lord about this.

           

            Dr. Wiersbe makes a statement in his commentary on this verse and I want to quote  here because of the great truth that I find in it:  “One of the tragedies today is that a new generation of believers doesn’t seem to know what it takes to be a godly leader, so they borrow leadership ideas from secular society and all kinds of unequipped and unqualified people to be leaders.”

 

            The wicked—Deceptive words (vv. 2-4):  “2 They speak falsehood to one another; With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak. 3  May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, The tongue that speaks great things; 4  Who have said, "With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?’”

            “2 Everyone talks in lie language; Lies slide off their oily lips. They doubletalk with forked tongues. 3 Slice their lips off their faces! Pull The braggart tongues from their mouths! 4 I’m tired of hearing, "We can talk anyone into anything! Our lips manage the world.’”  (Message)

           

            When we look at these three verses we see that David was frustrated with the use of words that people were using in order to get the things that they want, and David was writing about the ungodly people of his day, and I wonder what he would say about our day.  We live in a day where the “media” doesn’t just report the news but they manipulate the news in order to get people to believe their lies about it. 

           

            Saul told lies to his leaders about David in order to have them go after him to kill him, and Absalom used flattery to get people to follow him.  The Bible has a lot to say about flattery and none of it is good.  The Hebrew word that is translated as flattery in the KJV of the Bible is used 66 times and I did find “flattering” used in the NT (NASB) four times. 

           

            These verses have the word tongue in them and James has this to say about the tongue:  “Jas 3:8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.”  He has other things to say about the tongue such as “Jas 1:26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.” “Jas 3:5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!” “Jas 3:6  And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.”  What James is saying is that words can cause all kinds of harm and can hurt people, but words can also help people too and that is how we as believers should use our words.

 

            The Lord—Delivering Words (vv. 5-8):  “5 "Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise," says the LORD; "I will set him in the safety for which he longs." 6 The words of the LORD are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times. 7 You, O LORD, will keep them; You will preserve him from this generation forever. 8 The wicked strut about on every side When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.”

           

            We have seen the words “I will arise” spoken by the Lord in previous psalms and we mentioned its use in Numbers 10:35, “Then it came about when the ark set out that Moses said, "Rise up, O LORD! And let Your enemies be scattered, And let those who hate You flee before You.’”  In psalm 12 God says that He will arise and judge the liars and the deceivers. 

           

            The word safety in verse five is translated as salvation 32 times in the KJV and it comes from the same Hebrew root as “help” in verse 1 and “deliver” in 6:8, and is the basis for the names “Jesus” and “Joshua” (“Jehovah is salvation”). 

           

            The way the NASB uses the words “I will set him in safety for which he long” according to Dr. Wiersbe is the proper way to translate it from the Hebrew and he goes on to say, “When God comes to deliver His people, He will ‘cut off’ those who practice flattery and deception (v.3), which means separation from the covenant community (Gen. 17:14), like the separation of the goats from the sheep (Matthew 25:31-33).”

           

            We know that we can trust the Words of the Lord (“As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times”).  Psalm 19:9-10 reads “9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether. 10 They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.”

           

            Unlike many people in society who think that the Word of God is useless, believers know that the Word of God is true and because it is true it can be trusted, and that makes it worthwhile to continue to study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who doesn’t need to be ashamed.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “If God’s people saturate themselves with God’s Word, they won’t be seduced by ‘this lying generation.’ When the church adopts the techniques and motives of the world system, the church ceases to glorify the Lord.”

           

            Dr. Wiersbe writes these words about the last verse of Psalm 12:  “The final verse issues a call to action, for ‘the wicked strut about, and evil is praised throughout the land’ (NLT).  Vileness (‘cheapness’) is promoted and exalted in the media; immorality, brutality, murder, lies, drunkenness, nudity, the love of money, the abuse of authority.  The things that God condemns are now a means of universal entertainment, and the entertainment industry gives awards to people who produce these things.  People boast about things they ought to be ashamed of (Phil. 3:18-19).  Is there a way to restrain and overcome this national decay?  Yes!  God’s people are salt and light (Matt. 5:13016).  If there were more light in the land, there would be less darkness, and if we had more salt, there would be less decay.  As God’s people worship God, pray, and share the Gospel with the lost, more people will trust Christ and increase the salt and light in the land.  We must also share the truth of the Word with the next generation (2 Tim. 2:2) and prepare them for the battles and opportunities to come (78:1-8; 102:18).  The church is always one generation short of extinction, so we must be faithful to win the lost and teach the believers, or vileness will conquer the land.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The things that Dr. Wiersbe wrote in the last paragraph are a great challenge to me and by the grace of God I will do my part.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.     Trust the Lord to give me the words to speak and to write in order to challenge the next generation to be faithful to the Lord and to study His Word so that they too can tell others about the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2.     Continue to learn contentment.

 

 

12/30/2011 9:00:22 AM