Psalm 12

Today's scripture is Psalm 12. Go here to read it in your preferred version.

Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
² They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
³ The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:
⁴ Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
⁵ For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.
⁶ The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
⁷ Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
⁸ The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.

Matthew Henry has said, ask a nonbeliever what makes the times bad and they will say finances, or war, or things of that nature. But a Christian knows we need to call on God for help when there are no more godly men, or the faithful are failing (verse 1). Sin is reigning. There is a general decay in the world. Perhaps godly men are just dying off ("ceasing") without their faith being passed on to the next generation. Maybe they are deserting their faith, as so many do. It is interesting how David wrote this to God thousands of years ago, yet we are still in this same predicament. The faithful are still dying and failing, and perhaps even at a higher rate than ever, because there is even so much more now to take the place of God in one's life.

Verse 2 tells of more characteristics of this time. People will kiss your cheek and cut your throat and not even blink. They lie to you with flattering lips but a double heart. This shows dishonesty and a lack of sincerity. There may even come a day when Christians don't even know who to trust at all.

Verse 3 does show us that God will cut off these people though. The proud people who say "our lips are our own" (verse 4) and that we are our own god... how conceited and self-righteous this is. We like to imagine we are independent and self-sufficient but we really aren't. We're truly helpless without God in the grand scheme of things. The poor and needy are oppressed, people are acting self-righteous toward those in need, but God himself will stand up for them. God will set those in safety because He has heard their "sigh" of oppression. We feel like this at times, more so as the years pass, that wicked men are all around and certainly being exalted and being put in high places of power (verse 8). It's a scary thought. BUT. All is not lost! Thank God we can call out to Him for help! (verse 1)  Even just a few faithful Christians can be awesome prayer warriors and stand in the gap for this world. 

We also see that God is just. He will cut off the flattering lips and He will stand up for the oppressed. He is the Deliverer. Even when we cannot trust in people here on earth we can always trust in God. He is always faithful. God's word is pure (verse 6) and sincere. We can trust in that. God's word has been tested and tried over how many years - yet still cannot be disproved! It is easy for men to say they don't believe in God's word and there is no physical proof... no physical witnesses alive today... but nothing in the Bible has been disproved either. If one thing in the Bible is not true, probably none of it is true. But I don't believe there is one iota of untruth in it. I do believe we can twist things and Satan can twist things in our mind and there are things that our mind isn't capable of understanding. This does not mean it isn't fact.

Comments? Questions?