Psalms 12:1-8
1 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 doublea heart do they speak.
3 The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proudb 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 puffethc 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 mend are exalted.
Psalms 12:1. Help, Lord; for the godly, Hebrews חסיד chasid, the merciful man ceaseth. The true reading is preferable, because it joins piety with usefulness. In this manner David is thought to have prayed in the wilderness of Ziph, against the vices of the court, after the eighty priests of Nob, and their city, were destroyed. 1 Samuel 22:23.
REFLECTIONS.
The lying tongue of Doeg, who misguided his sovereign to a rash and bloody act, pierced the soul of David. But he who for the moment prevails against his neighbour, shall soon himself be cut off. The sword of the Philistines in a few years proved sharper than the sword of Saul.
The great sin of slander and falsehood is to be noted here, as it led to all those foul and cruel deeds that followed. It was for the oppression of the defenceless poor, to whom they should have been fathers and protectors, that the day of visitation was reserved.
But this should console the afflicted in all such circumstances, that while the tongues of wicked men utter the malice of their hearts, the words of the Lord are pure, like gold seven times refined. He is not as man, that he should lie: his truth and faithfulness endure for ever. The promises made to the fathers are made to the children, to the generations not yet born. Fret not thyself then, oh my soul, when the vilest of men obtain promotion; for the Lord shall cast them down, and number them with the dust.