Psalms 12

Psalms 12:1

David in this psalm complains to God of the treachery of his false friends, and the insistence of his future enemies. 1. He says God to help him, ver. 1, 2. 2. He foretells the fastener’s doom, ver. 3, 4. 3. He assures us that God will preserve his people in the world of times, ver. 5—8. And this psalm, in all bad times, may still afford comfort and strength to every godly man.

¶ To the chief musician upon Sheminah, A psalm of David. ¶ Psal. vii. Title.

1. HELP, LORD, for the godly man ceaeft: 1. To save, for the faithful fail from among the children of the men. 2. They speak vanity every one with his neighbor. 3. Your soul.

7 L bour: 4 PC. xxii. 5. Jer. ii. 6. c. 2. 7. Heb. a heart, and a heart. bour: 4 with flattering lips, and with 1 a double heart do they speak.

2. It hath been the just complaint of God’s faints in every age, how few faithful could be found. David here with deep concern bewails it; and since he could find so few like-minded with himself, whilst in general all purifed the ways of sin and vanity, he flies to God for help. Help, Lord, for the godly man (selfs); for the faithful fail from among the children of men. Bad times indeed, when piety towards God is decayed, and humbly in men ceases; when all fork their own, not the things which be of Jesus Christ. They freed vanity every one with his neighbour, or lies: with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak. Hypocrites, who by fair speeches deceive the unwary, profelling to serve them, but meaning themselves. Their cannot but be perilous days, and we have need earnestly to cry to God, Save us from the abounding iniquity in the world.

a Dan. vii. 8, 9). f Ifa. xxiii. vi. 8 PC. v. 5. 9 Or less faints for him. 8 PC. xx. 9 10 PC. xxii. 11. B. xxii. 12. P. P. xx. 13. c. 14. Heb. him. 15. c. never one of them.

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 fighting of the needy, ’now will I arise, (faith the LORD) I will set him in safety from him: that I 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 it them from this generation for ever. 8. The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.

Psalms 12:3-8

What David prays for, his faith fees ready to be accomplished. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, by judgments from the earth, and give them shortly their portion with liars in the burning lake, and the tongue that pleaseth proud things. None so high but God can humble them, his sword shall finite all the children of pride. Note, Pride will have a fall; the flower must either fall how before a throne of grace, to supplicate pardon, or deep into the belly of hell, where a drop of water will be wanting to cool a flaming tongue. The character of the proud is here described, Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; by eloquence carry the cause against truth and justice; or, as if they need but speak the word and it is done. Such high conceits does pride generate. Our lips are our own: Who is Lord ever us? calling on the government of God, and designing themselves, as if bound to give account of none of their words, and renouncing the authority of the Almighty. But they will be disappointed, there is one who observes all the high imaginations, and hard speeches of ungodly flowers, and will not suffer them to pass with impunity: for in the height of their infolence, God will make bare his arm, and shew them to their cost who is Lord over them. For the oppression of the poor, that groan like Israel in Egypt, under the afflictions they endure, and for the fighting of the needy, now will I arise, faith the Lord, when the arrogance of the proud is at the height, and his people’s patience ready to fail; in that critical time he will arise to confound the one, to refuse the other; I will for him to falter from him that puffeth at him, or breathes out threatening and slaughter as Paul, or lays fear for him, which shall be broken in pieces, and the souls of the righteous delivered as a bird from the net of the fowler. Note, God’s time is the best time, and if we have but faith, he will not fail; for the words of the Lord are pure words, proceeding from the fountain of purity, and therefore can never disappoint or deceive those who trust on them; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times, or more precious than the most refined silver, and pure from all human mixture and adulteration. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, as a promise; or it may be read, keep them, O Lord, as a prayer; to wit, the poor and needy, that trust in them, from all the powers of evil, from the fowles of the enemy, and from final and total apocrycy; thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever; from the wickedness of it, that they be not corrupted, and from their persecutors that they be not destroyed, and this for ever; for in all ages, and all places, this promise is sure to all the seed. Blessed be God we are not in our own keeping, but in so much better hands; so able to preserve us falling, and so faithful as never to forsake us: we are safe therefore, though the wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted, have the power and dominion here below: or, as the latter eluate may be rendered, according to their exaltation shall be their wilms. They shall fall as low in misery as they have been exalted in dignity, and gloried in iniquity.