SUNDAY PSALMS PART 4 OF 48 - PSALM 12

 

Downtown, Indianapolis.

1    Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases!
    For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
2   They speak idly everyone with his neighbor;
    With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
3   May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
    And the tongue that speaks proud things,
4   Who have said, "With our tongue we will 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 I will arise," says the Lord;
    "I will set him in the safety for which he yearns."
6   The words of the Lord are pure words,
    Like silver tried in a furnace of earth,
    Purified seven times.
7   You shall keep them, O Lord,
    You shall preserve them from this generation forever.
8   The wicked prowl on every side,
    When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.

Psalm 12:1-8, NKJV

Another Psalm that seems relevant today, doesn't it? Doesn't it seem like the righteous and faithful have vanished? Don't we regularly hear a lot of idle talk, flattery (e.g. "You are enough"), and pride? 

Verse 4 makes me think of the Libertarian principle "You own yourself." Now, don't misunderstand me. I know exactly what the Libertarian means: it's talking about the human level, where we're not slaves, where we have personal liberty, where we're not obligated to vote for the major parties just because they're the major parties. However, the reality is that principle is a lie, because God owns us. If we're believers, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 makes it crystal clear that our Lord owns us. If we're not, we fall under the first verse of Psalm 24: "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the earth and they that dwell within" (meaning everyone). 

Then, we get to verse 5. The Lord is watching, and will give the poor safety. Stop a second. If you put how verse 5 starts in place with the previous four verses, you realize that the poor are not in safety with the SFL (Society of Flattering Lips). In other words, those who think they have no accountability are at best selfish and arrogant and couldn't care less about the needs of others, and at worse are downright oppressive.

When I first noticed this Psalm, verses 6 and 7 got my attention, and I wrote a chorus for that Psalm. Verse 6 clearly talks about the purity of God's Word. But is verse 7 still talking about the Bible when it says "You will keep them.... you shall preserve them forever?" Some King James Only people make that claim, and hold that God's Word is preserved by their preferred translation. But does "them" in verse 7 go back to verse 5, where it talks about the oppressed poor and needy?

The final verse of this Psalm goes from the future hope that God will put an end to oppression to the present reality. Is vileness exalted among men? How many movies and Jerry Springer episodes do you need to watch to realize it is? 

Pardon me, but I'm not going to make things more comfortable before I close today's blog. How often does the church fall into the same category, exalting vileness? Do we cover our TV/movie/listening with prayer? Do we, as Paul encourages in Philippians 4:8, think on what is pure and lovely and true and noble and just and of good report? Or are we allowing our minds to be defiled by the world? And yes, I face the same temptations.