Psalm 12

Overview

The psalmist, destitute of human comfort, craves help from God, Psalm 12:1; gives the character of those who surrounded him, and denounces God’s judgments against them, Psalm 12:2-5; confides in the promises of God, and in his protection of him and all good men, Psalm 12:6-8.

Poetry by Isaac Watts based on Psalm 12

The saint’s safety and hope in evil times; or, Sins of the tongue complained of, namely, blasphemy, falshood, etc.

Lord, if thou dost not soon appear,
Virtue and truth will fly away;
A faithful man amongst us here
Will scarce be found, if thou delay.

The whole discourse, when neighbors meet,
Is filled with trifles loose and vain;
Their lips are flattery and deceit,
And their proud language is profane.

But lips that with deceit abound
Shall not maintain their triumph long;
The God of vengeance will confound
The flattering and blaspheming tongue.

“Yet shall our words be free,” they cry;
“Our tongues shall be controlled by none:
Where is the Lord will ask us why?
Or say our lips are not our own?”

The Lord, who sees the poor oppressed,
And hears th’ oppressor’s haughty strain,
Will rise to give his children rest,
Nor shall they trust his word in vain.

Thy word, O Lord, though often tried,
Void of deceit shall still appear;
Not silver, sev’n times purified
From dross and mixture, shines so clear.

Thy grace shall in the darkest hour
Defend the holy soul from harm;
Though when the vilest men have power,
On every side will sinners swarm

Prayer for yourself and people on your prayer list…

• Help O Lord, see how people are today
• Their words are vain and deceitful; there is no virtue or truth in them
• Lord I know you will end this
• You will rise up to deliver the oppressed, you will keep us safe
• Your words are pure, purer that we can imagine
• When vile people are exalted, wicked people trample everywhere
• But you will keep us, preserve us from this generation for ever

Reflection

The comment section of any social media platform gives ample evidence that there is a war of words over every popular issue. Evil words can distress, alienate and destroy lives. Today’s psalm acknowledges that what people say can be quite damaging.

But God has words too, pure words, purer that metal exposed to extreme heat over and over again. His words does the opposite of evil words. His words preserve us they don’t destroy. His words provide safety they do not inflict harm. The whole matter can be summed up like this ” Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God“(Matt 4:4; Deut 8:3)