Psalm 12

Psalm 12

A Psalm of David

-

Inspiration and Renewed Strength

from the 12th Psalm

The highlighted

KEY verse

is

Verse 5

"The Lord replies,

'I will arise and defend the oppressed,

the poor, the needy.

I will rescue them

as they have

longed for me to do.'"

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Verses 1-2

Lord! Help!

Godly men are fast disappearing.

Where in all the world can dependable men be found?

² Everyone deceives and flatters and lies.

There is no sincerity left.

(TLB version)

David is crying out to God because godly men are getting harder and harder to find.

Even faithful men who keep their word (but who aren't dedicated to God) are disappearing.

As life feels like it is getting harder and tougher,

and as

the sinful world increases in popularity and clout,

we see many people

turning away from God

 and turning away from

their promises and their responsibilities.

I have seen this in the world that we live in.

Over the last couple of decades,

sin has become more out in the open.

People are becoming proud of

what they used to be

ashamed of.

Sin is now popular.

Lying has become routine.

Commercials and TV shows portray lying as funny.

Men of Honesty

used to be

honored and respected.

Now they are the brunt of jokes.

Dedication to Honesty

is now thought of as

naive and foolish.

-

As we see in the next verses,

many people aren't just liars

but they are

Proud Liars.

PRIDE

But before we go on to verses 3-4,

I want to explore

what happened

that caused things to change.

What caused things to change?

I wrote and posted

the following "What Happened" section

on my blog in

September 2014.

Have you been wondering the following questions:

"What is going on in this world?

Why is sin getting so accepted?"

?

Here is the

Progression of Rebellion against God:

First we  -  Practice our Sin

Then we -  Defend our sin.

Then we -  Boast about our Sin.

author unknown

That is the progression

of

Rebellion against God.

Many of us in the U.S.A. 

have wondered what is going on

in our country.

The Answer:

It is the Progression of  Rebellion against God

that explains

what is going on in our country.

There has always been sin in our country.

But...

When I was young, almost everyone in our country

respected God 

too much to

defend their sin or boast about their sin.

When I was young, people practiced their sin, but they did not defend their sin nor did they boast about their sin.

The Downward Spiral

The first step downward that I saw was that people began to defend their sin. They defended their sin, but they did not boast about their sin. At this point, whenever people sinned, they were still embarrassed about it, but they found ways to defend what they were doing.

We can always "prove" we are right

but is the Lord convinced.

Proverbs 16:2 TLB

Sadly, I have said for many years:

"The national pastime is not baseball,

it is rationalizing sin."

Today I look at my country

and see that

people are now

not just practicing their sin

(without true godly repentance),

and they are not just defending their sin, 

they are:

 Boasting of their sin.

-

The U.S. has entered the

third stage of rebellion -

Boasting of sin.

-

Many are now proud of their sin.

Boasting about sin

indicates

a very hard heart toward God.

Today people do not just want you to

accept their sin,

they want you to endorse their sin.

They want to control your thoughts.

They want to

control

what you say AND how you think.

The sins of my country are many. In fact, the Bible says that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God.

I sin and fall short.
But I have had as a goal in my life,
that when I sin,
I will not defend it nor boast about it.

~

Sometimes I feel very embarrassed when I sin
and fall short,
but I have decided
to put as part of my character
that
I WILL
face my sins.
I will not ignore them or pretend God doesn't care.

I want to keep my heart tender toward God.

I care more about

my relationship with God

than I care about covering my sins.

What about you?

Verses 3-4

^3-4 But the Lord will not deal gently

with people who act like that;

he will destroy those proud liars who say,

“We will lie to our heart’s content.

Our lips are our own; who can stop us?”

In David's world -

and in our world today,

many people are not just sinners

but proud sinners - defiant sinners.

These defiant sinners dare anyone

(including God)

  to try to stop them.

They live a life of deception and delusion.

But they can't live there forever.

Verse 5

The Lord replies,

“I will arise and defend

the oppressed, the poor, the needy.

I will rescue them as they have longed for me to do.”

What a beautiful verse!

What a great promise from God!

Here we see God coming to the defense

of his people.

God

HAS

the

POWER

but he doesn't always use his power.

ARISE

The word "Arise"

gives us the picture of God

DOING

what he has the Power to do.

Here I envision a picture of

God 

 - who has been sitting on the throne -

but is now standing up

and starting to 

take care of

the wickedness. . . 

just as we have prayed for him to do.

ARISE

Don Moen

Consider our page on the word "Arise" - Psalm 10

 Though I am surrounded by troubles,

you will bring me

safely through them.

You will clench your fist

against my angry enemies!

Your power will save me.

Psalm 138:7 TLB

Verse 6

⁶ The Lord’s promise is sure.

He speaks no careless word;

all he says is purest truth,

like silver

seven times refined. 

God's truth is totally complete.

God's truth is pure.

God gives us a picture of

impure silver

being taken from the ground

and refined over and over

until everything

but

silver

is taken out.

The product that is left

is

pure silver.

-

God says, "Silver 7 times refined..."

The Number

7

Note that many Bible scholars believe that the number 7 is used by God to indicate perfection or completion.

Think about:

  7 days in a week gives a complete week

  7 notes in a musical scale

  7 colors in the rainbow

So in this verse,

God is telling us that

His Word

is like silver

that is refined to

perfection and completion.

As for God,

his way is perfect;

The word of the Lord is true.

He shields all who hide behind him. 

 2 Samuel 22:31 TLB

God doesn't lie. God IS Truth.

AND

God doesn't say things he doesn't mean. 

Think about this -

God didn't give his words to Moses

and the other writers of the Bible

and then later think -

"I'm not sure I really wanted to say that."

God speaks no careless word.

Every word of God was well thought out. 

God meant every word he said.

As verse Psalm 12:6 says,

"God speaks no careless word."

Dedication Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

You were not careless

in how you drew the lines of morality.

I will not be careless

in how I interpret your commands.

In Jesus' name I pray,

Amen

Copyright © 2006 Beth McLendon of Inspirational-Prayers.com

Before we continue,

take note

that this psalm is contrasting

the words of the ungodly

with the words of the Living God.

Verses 7-8

⁷ O Lord, we know that you will forever preserve your own from the reach of evil men,

⁸ although they prowl on every side
and vileness is praised throughout the land.

Evil may be on every side of us,

but God is carefully watching us every moment. 

Verse 8

Instead of the word "prowl" some translations use the word "strut."
That gives me thoughts of pride.

The Hebrew word is "halak".

It means "to walk, to go."

The wicked strut about

[in pompous self-importance]

on every side,

As vileness is exalted and baseness is prized

among the sons of men.

Psalm 12:8 AMP

In Conclusion

God instructs us

to 

live in this world

while trying not to allow

the wickedness of this world

to affect us. 

One of our key missions

is to trust in God and wait patiently

for him to save us.

The Bible tells us...

But the salvation of the righteous is from

the Lord;

He is their strength in the time of trouble.

40 And the Lord shall help them and deliver them;

He shall deliver them from the wicked,

And save them,

Because they trust in Him.

Psalm 37:39-40 NKJV

AND 

One of the great

JOYS

of

Psalm 12

is that it reminds us that

God is going to

SAVE US!

-

GOD is going to save us.

God IS going to save us.

God is GOING to save us.

God is going TO save us.

God is going to SAVE us.

God is going to save US!

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