|
Psalm 12
For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by an eight-stringed instrument.
1 Help, O Lord, for the godly are fast disappearing!
The faithful have vanished from the earth!
2 Neighbors lie to each other,
speaking with flattering lips and deceitful hearts.
3 May the Lord cut off their flattering lips
and silence their boastful tongues.
4 They say, “We will lie to our hearts’ content.
Our lips are our own—who can stop us?”
The first part of this Psalm laments the seeming decrease of the godly in the land.
In times when those that follow God faithfully are few and when evil flourishes, it is easy to despair or grow despondent about it.
The ways of those that do not follow God are always as David says:
1) Proud and lying hearts
The worldview of the wicked is a lie of their own pride. Any type of thinking is permissible. Pleasure is derived from evil.
2) Mouths that speak whatever they want to. There is nothing sacred or that cannot be said. Unrighteous lips are always a sign of an unclean heart in the Bible.
3) Anything can be done. There is nothing to stop them; no authority. God, Law (moral or civil) and culture are no barriers to their wickedness. They are their own gods.
5 The Lord replies, “I have seen violence done to the helpless,
and I have heard the groans of the poor.
Now I will rise up to rescue them,
as they have longed for me to do.”
6 The Lord’s promises are pure,
like silver refined in a furnace,
purified seven times over.
7 Therefore, Lord, we know you will protect the oppressed,
preserving them forever from this lying generation,
8 even though the wicked strut about,
and evil is praised throughout the land.
In the opposing second half of the Psalm, we see that the LORD is not deaf or blind to what is happening.
He see the oppression caused by wicked persons against His faithful remnant. He hears the prayers and cries for help from His people.
God always works His will in human events and history. Even the wicked cannot thwart His ways. His promises are like the purest refined silver, as David says ... something we can bank on!
Out of the chaos of the world controlled by the unrighteous, God will preserve His people. They will come through the time of trial and oppression and remain forever! It may seem like evil has the upper hand now, as it is promoted and touted all over as the way things are, but the LORD will rise up and rescue the godly.
Just as David prays in the beginning of Psalm 12, it is sure that evil will be silenced and that the faithful of God will be preserved.
Amen
|
