As I write this, I’m thinking of a recent Bible study I participated in consisting of seven men. These men have had to fight to find hope in a godless culture that feels to be closing in on all sides. They watch more political commentary on YouTube than they should and their hope suffers for it. At every turn, they feel as if lies prevail while truth is mocked, ridiculed, and discarded. To be specific, they are confused at how a culture obsessed with its version of justice can feel so unjust to them. They’re concerned about trends regarding the redefinition of gender and the relativization of truth. They worry for the sanctity of their beliefs and grow suspicious of those charged with protecting their right to faithfully follow Christ. These men, as well as myself, need to be reminded that we worship the true, holy, just, and rescuing God that can never fail and is still worthy of our trust.
In Psalm 12, David is lamenting a moment when he felt overwhelmed by liars and flatterers. Though it’s not certain from the text whether the liars are fellow Israelites or Gentiles, we can gather that David was discouraged, frustrated, and deflated by rampant deceitfulness and wickedness. He longs for justice. He hungers for the righteousness of God to be upheld, and for honesty and truth to reign in a time of falsehood, flattery, and double-heartedness. Still, though all around him dishonesty flourishes, the psalmist finds his ultimate hope in the purity of God’s word and the promise of his steadfast justice.
Though the psalm is birthed from distress because of corruption, David’s first word has a calibrating effect for him and for his readers: “Save”, he writes (Psalm 12:1 ESV). From the outset, David cries out to God and leans with his full weight upon his loving, consistent, and true nature. The startling opening also indicates an eruption of pent-up grief over sin. Alexander Maclaren writes, “The cry for help abruptly beginning the psalm tells of the sharp pain from which it comes. The psalmist has been brooding over the black outlook till his overcharged heart relieves itself in this single-worded prayer.”1 This one-worded opening is a blunt expression of David’s tired, desperate urgency for God to move where only he can.
As the song progresses, it is as if David feels confused—or perhaps baffled—by the flourishing of sin. “The faithful have vanished” (Ps 12:1), and “everyone utters lies,” he writes (Ps 12:2). Was it true that every last righteous person had vanished and that not a single soul spoke truthfully? Not likely. Surely, someone nearby had to be an honest person. The psalmist is using hyperbole to emphasize his befuddlement. David is so angered by flattering lips and boastful tongues that he prays for the Lord to cut them off (Ps 12:3)! It would seem he’s being hyperbolic once again (or perhaps not). His strong language serves well to emphasize the severity of each liars’ heart-level offense. It’s not just about lying, the problem is pride. The mouths that utter unbridled falsehood are attached to hearts that rebel against the authority and righteousness of God as they boast in verse 4, “Who is master over us?”
Next, David shifts his focus toward the recipients of rampant injustice. While sin appears to flourish, he understands that God will not tolerate corruption and that his compassion is stirred by injustice. Thus, he quotes God, “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now rise.” (Ps 12:5) In his weariness, David rests in God’s compassion and truth. Where man will flatter and deceive to gain favor, “the words of the Lord are pure words” (Ps 12:6) that will never prove false.
The psalm ends with a comforting reminder that God will keep his people (Ps 12:7), which is then coupled with the sober reality that the wicked still prowl and vileness is still exalted (Ps 12:8). David has come full circle, as if to end the song back where he started: “Save”. This time around, however, David and his readers have gained a refreshed perspective of God’s faithfulness despite mankind’s faithlessness. John Collins writes, “this is a somber note on which to close, it keeps the faithful mindful of their constant dependence on God to guard them. The psalm has also shown that this trust is well placed.”2
An Israelite reading Psalm 12 would have been encouraged by the reminder that even when times are saturated in wickedness, God remains good and his justice is sure. Conversely, another Israelite—one not walking according to God’s law—would have received a stern warning: God will avenge the plundered and his promise to do so is pure. As Matthew Henry commented on the passage, “He who made man’s mouth will call him to an account for his proud, profane, dissembling, or even useless words.”3 God’s justice is hope for the chosen and terror for the wicked. When God’s justice prevails, on which side of the line will we be found?
Thus, the primary takeaway of Psalm 12 may vary depending on whether one is included in David’s “us” or counted among “this generation” of unfaithful (Ps 12:7). For the former—those counted among God’s chosen—the psalm is a beacon of hope, shining a light on God’s saving nature and a future salvation according to his pure words (Ps 12:6). Though wicked generations seem to flourish, in the end God will place his own “in the safety for which [they] long” (Ps 12:5) and God’s words—or promises—are purer than silver refined seven times (12:6). For the reader transgressing God’s law, it is a warning against lying lips, duplicitous hearts, flattering speech, pridefulness, and wicked vileness. To that reader, it’s a call to repent and turn to the One whose speech is pure and promises are sure.
As modern readers of Psalm 12—both Jew and Gentile—we can interpret the text similarly. In Christ, we have been grafted into the people of God, and may be both encouraged and warned. Paul writes, we “although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree.” (Romans 11:17) The olive tree is a fitting analogy in this case, as the sacrifice of Christ bought peace between us and God. Being grafted into the family of God grants us the ability to join David’s “us” in Psalm 12:7. That being the case, on this side of redemption we can clearly see Christ as the fulfillment of this promise—God’s pure, incarnate word—to his people. Not only that, but Christ suffered the injustice, lies, and vileness described in the song. He is the fulfillment of the psalm as its supreme singer—sufferer, poor, plundered, and in need—and also as its final fulfillment as the One who comes to the rescue to all who call out to God, “Save!”
For the saved, what salve can we find in Psalm 12 from the sting of those with lying lips? As men in a culture bent on distorting truth we can take heart. We know the Father whose words are pure just as we know the Son who is himself pure. We serve the God who sees every facet of corruption and reassures his own, saying, “I will now arise”; and he has! God himself, in keeping his promise to save, has accomplished salvation by letting wicked men shed his own blood. Christ was the reviled, slandered, plundered, and poor savior who hung on the cross. He was the Messiah whom the Pharisees called blasphemer (Mark 14:64; Matthew 9:3) and the true King the masses considered false. He suffered the greatest injustice in the history of the world, died a sinner’s death, and rose again—just as he promised. Indeed Christ’s word is pure! It is because the just one endured injustice that we are free from pursuing justice for ourselves. It is from knowing how Jesus was misunderstood that we are released from the need to fight to be understood in this life.
More soberly, so often we are the double-hearted men David speaks of in the Psalm—those guilty of reviling, misrepresenting, and flattering Christ with false worship. Oh, how we’d be the ones betraying Jesus with a kiss if it were not for him saving us unto himself! Yet, by God’s gracious, pure promise as fulfilled on the cross, we are not destined to pay the price our wickedness requires. Instead, Christ arose and placed us in the safety of his care and salvation so that to the question, “Who is master over us?,” (Ps 12:4) we may now humbly answer: Jesus Christ, the incarnate, true, and pure Word of God.
- Maclaren, Alexander, “The Psalms,” in The Expositor’s Bible: Psalms to Isaiah (ed. W. Robertson Nicoll; vol. 3; Expositor’s Bible; Hartford, CT: S.S. Scranton Co., 1903), 336. [back]
- Collins, C. John, “Psalms,” in The ESV: Study Bible: English Standard Version, (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2007), 953. [back]
- Henry, Matthew and Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Ps 12:1. [back]