Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 12:1
To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David. Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
1. Help ] Render save, as in Psa 3:7, Psa 6:4, Psa 7:1, and elsewhere; and note the connexion with in safety, Psa 12:5.
for the godly man ceaseth &c.] Godly, or kindly, men are no more: the faithful fail (or as R.V. marg., faithfulness faileth) from among the sons of men. Mercy and truth, lovingkindness and trustworthiness, seem to have become extinct. Similar complaints are common in the prophets. See Hos 4:1; Mic 7:2; Isa 57:1; Isa 59:14 ff.; Jer 5:1 ff; Jer 7:28; Jer 9:2 ff. For the meaning of godly see note on Psa 4:3 and Appendix, Note I. Here it means ‘one who practises lovingkindness towards his fellow-men as a religious duty.’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1, 2. A cry for help in the midst of prevailing faithlessness.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Help, Lord – Hebrew, Save, Yahweh. The idea is that there was no human help, and, therefore, the divine help is implored. The psalmist saw that those on whom reliance was usually placed for the promotion of the cause of truth and virtue now failed, and hence, he invites the divine interposition.
For the godly man – The word used here properly denotes the merciful man – chasyd. It is a term applied to the righteous, because it is a prominent trait in the character of a pious man that he is merciful, kind, benignant. Hence, the general character is often denoted by the special characteristic; in the same way as we speak of a pious man as a good man, a just man, a righteous man. The idea suggested by the use of the term here is, that it is always a characteristic of a pious man that he is merciful or benignant. Compare Psa 4:3; Psa 32:6, where the same word is rendered godly; Psa 30:4; Psa 31:23; Psa 37:28; Psa 50:5; Psa 52:9; Psa 79:2; Psa 85:8, where it is rendered saints; and Deu 33:8; Psa 16:10; Psa 86:2; Psa 89:19, where it is rendered holy. Ceaseth. The word used here – gamar – means properly to bring to an end; to complete; to perfect. Hence, it means to come to an end, to cease, to fail.
Gesenius. – This might occur either by their being cut off by death; or by their ceasing to exert their influence in favor of religion; that is, by a general prevalence of wickedness among those who professed to be the friends of God. The latter seems to be the meaning here, since, in the following verses, the psalmist proceeds to specify the manner in which they fail; not by death, but by speaking vanity, falsehood, and flattery. That is, their conduct was such that their influence failed, or was lost to the community. No reliance could be placed on them, and, therefore, the psalmist so earnestly calls on God for his interposition. The idea is, that when men professing religion become conformed to the world – when they live like other men – when they cease to exert an influence in favor of piety – when they fall into habits of sin, it is a time to call on God with special earnestness for his aid. Often such conduct on the part of the professed friends of religion makes such an appeal to God more proper than even the death of good men does, for, in the latter case, their influence is simply withdrawn; in the former, not only is this influence which they might exert lost to the church, but there is a positive bad influence to be counteracted. The fall of a professor of religion into sin is a greater loss to the church than his death would be.
For the faithful – Those who profess faith; those who are bound by their vows to be faithful to God and to his cause. The word is equivalent to the believing, and is properly expressive of trust or faith in God.
Fail from among the children of men – Fail, as above noted, by their misconduct; by being false to the trust committed to them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 12:1-8
Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth.
–This, according to the title, is one of Davids Psalms; but there is nothing in the circumstances, so far as we know them, of his history, which can lead us to associate the Psalm with any particular period. Tholuck thinks it is aimed at persons by whom David was surrounded in the court of Saul. Others suppose that it was occasioned by the treachery of the Ziphites (1Sa 23:19), or the treachery of Ahithophel, in Absaloms rebellion. But it is not one or two prominent individuals whose conduct forms the burden of the Psalmists complaint. He is evidently smarting from the falseness and hypocrisy of the time. The defection which he deplores is a national defection. Like Elijah in the desert, he feels himself alone. A taint has spread through society. Falsehood is everywhere, truth nowhere. The heart of man is double; their lips are flattering lips (verse 8). And whilst they utter slander, hypocrisy, and lies, they boast of their power; and not only give their tongues licence, but justify the licence: Our lips are our own; who is Lord over us? Now this utter hollowness and insincerity are very hard to bear. The few who, in the midst of general corruption, still retain their integrity are persecuted, and sigh for deliverance. This deliverance is promised them in the form of the Divine interposition. The singer, filled with the spirit of prophecy, consoles himself, and those afflicted like himself, not in his own words but in the words of God (verse 6). And then, remembering how pure those words are, how unalterably true,–not like the words of men, which seem so fair, but are false,–he feels that there he can rest, calm in the conviction that, though the wicked walk on every side, Jehovah will save them that love Him from all their machinations (verse 8). The Psalm consists of two principal divisions.
I. A complaint (Psa 17:1-4).
1. The cry for help, because good men are nowhere to be found; and lies, and flattery, and insincerity prevail.
2. The prayer that flatterers and liars may be destroyed (Psa 17:3-4).
II. The answer to that complaint (Psa 17:5-7). Including Gods promise of help in answer to the cry for help, and the Psalmists Amen, and the assurance and hope built upon the promise (Psa 17:7-8). (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.)
A prayer of David
to God, to save and help him, and keep him from the deceits and contagion of the wicked, of which the world is too full.
1. A prayer, and the reasons of it (Psa 12:1-2). The petition is brief and jaculatory, for he breaks upon God with one word–Help, or Save. Of which he gives two reasons–
(1) The penury and scarcity of good men.
(2) The great abundance of the wicked, and the licentious times.
2. A prophecy of the fall of the wicked, whose arrogance he describes (Psa 12:4). The prophecy shows what shall be the end of their dissembling.
3. Gods answer to Davids petition. Is it so that the wicked are thus numerous, thus tyrannous, so proud, so arrogant, then I will arise; I will not delay; I will set him in safety. That which moveth Me is his pitiful condition, his sighs and groans. Of this let no man doubt. In Gods words there is no fallacy.
4. A petitiory conclusion. Keep them, O Lord. Without God keep them, they will be infected. Keep them from this generation. For there be a generation of vipers. And ever make them persevere; for without Thy aid they will fall. (William Nicholson, D. D.)
Dark ages
I. The golden age of a country may be a dark age in the estimate of the saint. The true glory of a country is moral, and where the moral element is wanting all other glories are dim. Philosophers, poets, commanders, artists, orators, statesmen, millionaires, do not make a Golden Age, but the presence of many virtuous and godly men.
II. The faults with which a splendid civilisation may be chargeable.
1. Lack of faithfulness.
2. Untruthfulness.
3. Pride. Talking big.
4. Boasting.
5. Goodness is treated with contempt.
III. The duty of the Christian patriot.
1. To cry mightily to God against the prevailing wickedness.
2. To protest by word and act against this iniquity.
3. To rest, in days of triumphant wickedness, in the word and power of God.
4. To claim Gods promise, and keep himself unspotted from the world. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The moral degeneracy of society
The poem is a picture of a morally rotten age. The devout author felt himself living in corrupt times. Hence he notes this degeneracy–
I. As a fact for devout lamentation. He mourns because of three things–
1. The absence of the true. The godly man ceaseth.
2. The presence of the false, vain man,–they speak vanity. Obsequious men flattering lips. Insincere–a double heart. They spoke one thing and meant another. Proud–they spoke proud things. Cruel–the oppression of the poor. What a spectacle for a devout eye.
3. The exaltation of the vile. The vilest men are exalted.
II. As a reason for Divine interposition.
1. Help, Lord. So he prayed.
2. Divinely promised. Now will I arise, saith the Lord. This comes as an answer to the prayer. Before they call I will answer.
3. Heartily expected. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord.
III. As suggesting by contrast the excellency of Gods Word. The words of the Lord are pure words. They are so for–
1. They are unmixed with falsehood; and
2. They have been thoroughly tested. As silver tried in a furnace of earth, etc. How thoroughly it has been tried these six thousand years, by persecution, by hostile criticism, by the profoundest experience of the good in all ages. (D. Thomas D. D.)
The degeneracy of a soul
Help, Lord! This is the wailing supplication of a soul oppressed with the degeneracy of society. It is a cry for security amid an evil epidemic. This Psalm marks off the steps of social degradation. We can see the progressive descents from the worship of God to the exaltation of vileness. Regard these stages of decline in their relationship to the individual. Society only reflects the individual man. Regard the passage as a vivid description of the degeneracy of a soul.
1. The decay of the sense of reverence. The beginning of degeneracy is to lose touch with God. We lose our touch with God when we cease to feel after Him. It is the effort to feel that preserves the sensitive touch.
2. The decay of the sense of honour. Faithfulness faileth, the dependableness of character is impaired. When reverence is benumbed, trustfulness is broken.
3. The decay of the sense of responsibility. Our lips are our own; who is Lord over us? The perversion of honour destroys the sense of responsibility. Men become self-centred, and therefore blinded.
4. The decay of the sense of humanity. The spoiling of the poor, the sighing of the needy. Where irresponsibility reigns, cruelty abounds. The birth of cruelty synchronises with the death of reverence.
5. The decay of the sense of right. Vileness is exalted. This is the last stage of the appalling degradation. Evil at length becomes mans good. He has lost his moral discernment. How can we be saved from this perilous decline? The wish to be saved is the beginning of salvation. Exercise thyself in feeling, and thou shalt become expert in touching. Everywhere and at all times be reaching out for God. Pray for Him everywhere. The good Lord is dependable; He is better than His word. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
The departure of spiritual worth lamented
This text is the language of feeling. But thought and feeling should not be placed in opposition to each other. They are mutually dependent. Thought without feeling would be powerless; feeling without thought would be wild, turbulent, and reckless.
I. Spiritual worth. The two words godly and faithful express this. They correspond with other Bible words, such as devout and just. They cover the two branches of human holiness, piety and morality. In what does spiritual worth consist? Every man sustains two fundamental relations: the one connecting him with God, the other with society. The individual man lives in the social. In the spiritual constitution of man there are two controlling tendencies corresponding to these relationships. These tendencies are designated the religious and social affections. The religious element is the soul of mans soul; its perversion has been his degradation, and its right development is essential to his true elevation. The very constitution of the soul is theistic, the being of a God is implied in its structure, laws, and operations. The right state of these controlling tendencies constitutes spiritual worth. The right state of both is a state of love. Social morality springs out of piety. This worth enriches a man. It is valuable for its own sake. It is absolute worth. How is man to come into possession of it? This is the problem of life. All spiritual power we trace to the gospel. We would not depreciate other influences of spiritual culture.
II. Spiritual worth departed. Various ways in which spiritual worth departs from a community. Change of locality. Change of character. Change of worlds. What principles will regulate the circumstances of death in the case of individuals?
1. That death would be always peaceful in proportion to a mans goodness.
2. That death would be postponed in proportion to a mans usefulness. Actual experience controverts both these anticipations. The departure of spiritual worth lamented
III. It is the language of lamentation, Help, Lord.
1. Their departure is a great loss. Has death terminated their existence?
2. It is a loss to society.
3. The loss requires the interposition of God. The separation is material, not spiritual accidental, not essential. The mental bond is closer through the dissolution of the bodily. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The death of the godly an incentive to prayer
I. Because there are so few of them in the world. Such men are the salt of the earth. God teaches us their worth by removing them from this world.
II. Their presence and service here seem essential to the cause of God.
1. On account of their example.
2. Their influence and usefulness.
III. Because it is so difficult to fill up their places.
IV. The grace and providence of God suggest the only remedy–prayer. Help, Lord, etc. (Anon.)
The loss of godly men
The Psalm appears to have been composed in a time of great degeneracy and corruption of manners.
I. The important, useful, and amiable characters here specified. Godly and faithful. The word godly is sometimes translated merciful.
1. Consider godliness as a principle that comes from God, not in a natural but supernatural way. Holiness is the work of the Spirit of God. No man is godly but he in whom God has wrought a saving change, whose heart is turned from sin to God, from self to Christ, from earth to heaven. Wherein does godliness consist? Godliness is Gods likeness. Wherever that is, there is a supreme love to God. Every godly man loves God, not only because God is kind and bountiful to him, but because God is holy in Himself: He is a godly man who is a sincere and a constant worshipper of God. The love of a child to a parent is exemplified by his obedience. A child of God obeys his heavenly Father from love. Every godly man worships God in secret. Everyone who is godly professes a regard for the public worship of God, and makes conscience of attending it. A godly man is not free from frailties and infirmities. But his heart is habitually right in the sight of God, and his way of life prevailingly corresponds with his religious profession. Consider–
2. The other branch of the word godly, namely, merciful. (Isa 57:1) Merciful men are men of kindness such as show kindness. As they fear God, so they regard man. Happy for society when these two things are conjoined, a ready heart and a bountiful hand.
3. The faithful. The truly godly are faithful to God; and also faithful to men. Where godliness is, there will be honesty.
II. The great cause we have to deplore the loss of such persons. When David wrote, it was a time of abounding iniquity among all degrees of people, and there were very few to be found who preserved these characters. The ceasing and the failing of them is to be considered also descriptive of their dissolution. When the judgments of God are abroad in the earth, and a dark cloud hangs over a sinful kingdom, is there not cause to bewail the departure of such as were men of prayer and of a public spirit?
III. The duty of crying to God for help when such characters fail. Vain is the help of man. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
1. Let us pray that the Lord would help us to attend to such a speaking providence, and improve it to our spiritual advantage.
2. That the Lord would so help in the present exigence and trial as to raise up others to supply the place of such useful men. (Richard Winter.)
Times of spiritual dearth and solitude
In the days of Savonarola, Italy was abandoned to its passions, its corruptions, and its vices. The rich tyrannised over the poor, and the poor were miserable, helpless, and abandoned. The zealous monk found himself at war with the world and the Church, and was shocked by the profanations that existed around him. There is no one, he said, not even one remaining, who desires that which is good; we must learn from children and women of low estate, for in them only yet remains any shadow of innocence. The good are oppressed, and the people of Italy are become like the Egyptians who held Gods people in bondage.
Good men taken from the evil to come
Even as a careful mother, seeing her child in the way when a company of unruly horses run through the streets in full career, presently whips up her child in her arms and taketh him home; or as the hen, seeing the ravenous kite over her head, clucks and gathers her chickens under her wings; even so when God hath a purpose to bring a heavy calamity upon a land, it hath been usual with Him to call and cull out to Himself such as are His dearly beloved. He takes His choice servants from the evil to come. Thus was Augustine removed a little before Hippo (wherein he dwelt) was taken; Paroeus died before Heidelberg was sacked; and Luther was taken off before Germany was overrun with war and bloodshed. (E. Dunsterville.)
The faithful fail from among the children of men.
Our imperfect estimates
We must not accept the words of this Psalm as true because they happen to be written here or anywhere. It is perfectly possible for us to take an unwise and incorrect view of social conditions. David did not keep a register of all the godly and all the faithful. Another prophet said that he alone was left; the Lord corrected his estimate, and said, No, not alone; I have seven thousand who have never kissed the lips of Baal. It is unwise to take the opinion of dejectedness and forsakenness upon any topic. When we are in extreme positions, either of joy or of sadness, we are not qualified to pronounce broadly and correctly upon the whole scope of Divine Providence. In high joy, the glee that all but dances in the sanctuary, for very ecstasy of heart, we may think all men good, all causes excellent, all the features of the times beautiful. In dejection, despondency, orphanhood of heart, we may think we alone are left, and that the gift of prayer will perish with our breath. All things wear a sombre aspect; the whole year is one long November; the very music of childhood is but an aggravation of our suffering. That opinion must not be taken. Within the limits of the mans own personality it is quite true, but no great generalisation must be built upon it. David did not know how many godly men there were in the world, nor how many faithful; but his experience is valuable up to this point, namely, that he felt everything of the nature of trust, confidence, progress depended upon the presence of godly and faithful elements in the world. That the population of the globe had increased was nothing to David, if the godliness and faithfulness of the community had gone down. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
No trusting in men
To one reflecting that Gods kingdom of truth and righteousness in the earth is to be maintained through human agencies, it is a saddening sight to see one after another of its champions and defenders disappearing from the conflict. The sight often smites the heart of the survivor, as it would have smitten the heart of the Israelite to have seen David fall in his combat with Goliath. Few, indeed, are the communities, whether civil or ecclesiastical, whose histories do not exhibit epochs and closes in which their whole future well-being seemed to depend upon the life of a single man, or at most, upon the lives of a very small band. And when such men fall in the conflict, or depart hence in the course of nature, good men feel that society has suffered a loss that cannot be easily repaired. But how much more severely is the blow felt when the champions of a cause are lost to it, not by death, but by turning traitors; when a Judas betrays the Church, and an Arnold the State. Now it is in this latter sense that we are to understand Davids words, the godly man ceaseth, etc. It was not by the sword of an enemy, nor by natural death, that they had been lost to the cause of law and order, truth and right, but by betraying it, and fighting against it. Davids own son, and subjects, and generals, and ministers had conspired to overthrow the cause they had sworn to defend; and thus situated, he appeals to the only power that can now avail him, saying, Help, Lord, man has failed me; Thou alone canst now deliver. (David Caldwell, A. M.)
Trustworthiness
He is a faithful man who keeps faith. Faith is the equivalent of fidelity, and fidelity is what we mean by trustworthiness. We are growing. Modern civilisation is not a failure. But it may be a question, whether we are keeping pace by moral growth with our intellectual and physical development. All signs of material advancement are of little account, if the ethical power of the Gospel is left out. Without fidelity to all the duties of a true man in society there can be no religion which is of any value. It is quite possible for men to make religious sensibilities and religious experiences a substitute for ethical integrity. It is a growing impression that men are becoming more and more untrustworthy. One of the features of our times is a growing looseness in fidelity. Consider this in regard to truth, which is the central trunk of trustworthiness. Men in ordinary conversation are not as careful of truth as they should be. I refer to carelessness of truth, to heedless and rash statements. There is a low sense or tone of conscience in regard to accuracy and fidelity on the subject of truth speaking. Truth is the backbone of honour, and indeed of manhood itself. In the rivalry and pressure of affairs there is a growing tendency to misrepresent the truth. Men really trap each other by half-truths. Half-truths are the devils whole lies. Promises are not now kept as they should be. Unless men put their word into legal form, it is not generally considered that their promises are worth much. Trustworthiness, also, under assumed obligations, seems to me to be relaxing. It seems to me that the sentiment of service is becoming very much enfeebled, Now human society cannot cohere where a man cannot trust his fellow man. You cannot discharge your duties to humanity without being in subordination one to another. Society organises itself by relative superiorities and inferiorities. It is a constant complaint that it is the hardest thing in the world to find competent young men who can be trusted . . . I like to hear of eminent Christian experiences. Change of heart is good, but change of life is better. It would at least be more agreeable to ones neighbours. How is it in this matter? Is there anything in religious doctrine that is an equivalent for ethical Christianity? Is there anything that is a substitute for fidelity between man and man? (H. Ward Beecher.)
Godly and faithful
A prayer of Davids to God for help on this ground–that there was little or no religion, or honesty left among men; and that therefore he had no reason to trust them, or to expect a blessing on such instruments.
I. The importance of the two characters–godly and faithful, Godly imports a benign, gentle, and good-natured man, but this has such a relation to religion, and is such a disposition to it, that among the Jews the word was in common use extended to a man that was exact to all the duties of religion, and strict in the performance of them. A godly man is not one that places his religion in many assumed practices, that do not tend to make him better. Nor he that understands his religion well Nor he that is very regular in all outward rules and matters of form. The truly godly man has an inward sense of a supreme power that is over him, and endeavours to resemble this being, and to govern all his actions in conformity to the will and laws of God. He believes that God, by His providence, watches over all things, and consequently resigns himself up to His will, and submits to everything that conies to him from that hand. A godly man is a faithful man. He that has a true sense of religion knows that God is true, and so he always speaks the truth. He is severe in matters of truth. He is raised to such a pitch of candour and sincerity that every man who has any concerns with him will soon see what he is to trust to, or to depend upon. A faithful man is he that hates both lies and liars. He is true in his actions as well as in his words.
II. Davids complaint. The godly ceased. On what grounds did he make this complaint?
III. The dangerous and desperate state of a nation, in which godly and faithful men do fail. Dangerous by reason of the natural effects that follow, and by reason of the judgments of God.
IV. The only remedy for all this. Which is an earnest prayer to God for help. (Gilbert Burnet, D. D.)
Zion bereaved of the faithful
I. The fact. But who are faithful?
1. They who are faithful to themselves will not deceive themselves as to their state before God.
2. To God. Maintaining His truth.
3. To the Church, the election of grace. Declaring to them positive truth, resting on the covenant, tracing all blessing to the Holy Spirit.
II. The exclamation. The faithful fail. It is–
1. The voice of mourning.
2. Of appeal to God to raise up others.
3. Of the soul that cares for Zion.
4. Craving further nourishment.
III. The warning–that when the Lord has taken home a few more of His faithful, then a storm of persecution will burst forth upon His Church. The night is approaching. Make sure work of your own salvation. (Joseph Irons.)
A touching plea
We feel that we cannot well spare the good from this earth in its present demoralised condition; because–
I. We need their example. Example is both
(a) Demonstrative, and
(b) Educational.
II. We need their influence. It is the good of this world who preserve it from total moral corruption.
III. We need their counsels. But Gods dispensations are all right. He makes no mistakes. (W. H. Luckenbach, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM XII
The psalmist, destitute of human comfort, craves help from God,
1;
gives the character of those who surrounded him, and denounces
God’s judgments against them, 2-5;
confides in the promises of God, and in his protection of him
and all good men, 6-8.
NOTES ON PSALM XII
The inscription to this Psalm is: To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David. See on the title of Ps 6:1. The Arabic has “Concerning the end (of the world which shall happen) on the eighth day. A prophecy relative to the Advent of the Messiah.”
Some think that this Psalm was made when Doeg and the Ziphites betrayed David to Saul, see 1Sa 22:9; 1Sa 23:19; c., but it is most likely that was written during the Babylonish captivity.
Verse 1. Help, Lord] Save me, O Lord for merciful men fail, and faithful men have passed away from the sons of Adam. Make safe me, Lord; for haly failed, for lessed es sothfastnes fra sons of men. OLD MS.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Help; or, save me and other good men from the subtlety and rage of wicked men. Saul will not help us, and other men cannot help; therefore it is a fit season for thee to help.
The godly; or, kind, or merciful, as this word is oft used, as Psa 30:5; 31:24; 86:2; q.d. I and my friends are sorely and causelessly persecuted, banished from our homes and friends, and, which is worst of all, from Gods sanctuary, and yet few or none pity us; all mercy and humanity is lost.
The faithful fail; men have lost not only serious piety, but even common honesty, in their words and dealings with men.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. the faithfulor literally,”faithfulness” (Ps31:23).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth,…. A godly man, according to the notation of the word z, is one that has received grace and mercy of the Lord; as pardoning mercy, justifying and adopting grace; and who has principles of grace, goodness, and holiness, wrought in him; who fears the Lord, and serves him acceptably, with reverence and godly fear, and sorrows for sin, after a godly sort; who loves the Lord, and hopes and believes in him; who is regenerated and sanctified by the Spirit of God, and is a true worshipper of God, and lives in all holy conversation and godliness; and, particularly, is “beneficent”, “kind”, and “merciful” a unto men: such may be said to “cease” when there are but few of them; when their number is greatly reduced b, either by death, or when such who have seemed, and have been thought to be so, prove otherwise: in a view of which, the psalmist prays for help and salvation; “help”, or “save” c Lord; meaning himself, being destitute of the company, counsel, and assistance of good and gracious men; or the cause and interest of religion, which he feared would sink by the ceasing of godly men. When all friends and refuge fail, saints betake themselves to God, and their salvation is of him; and he is their present help in a time of trouble; and he saves and reserves for himself a number in the worst of times; as he did in Elijah’s time, who thought there was no godly man left but himself; see Ro 11:1;
for the faithful fail from among the children of men; so that there are none left among them but carnal, unregenerate, ungodly, and unfaithful men. The “faithful” are such who are upright in heart and conversation; who trust in the Lord, and believe in the Messiah; who abide by the truths and ordinances of God; and are faithful in what is committed to their trust, whether they be gifts of nature, Providence, or grace; and to their fellow Christians, in advising, reproving, c. when needful: these may fail in the exercise of grace, and in the discharge of duty, but not so as to perish eternally. The words design the paucity of them, and the sad degeneracy of the times to which they refer: and they may belong either to the times of David, when Saul’s courtiers flattered him, and spoke evil of David when the men of Keilah intended to have delivered him up; when the Ziphites discovered him to Saul, and invited him to come and take him; or when Absalom rose up in rebellion against him, and so many of the people fell off from him: or else to the times of Christ; the people of the Jews in his age were a wicked and faithless generation; and even among his own disciples there was great want of fidelity: one betrayed him, another denied him, and all forsook him and fled; after his death, some doubted his being the Redeemer, and one of them could not believe he was risen from the dead, when he was. And these words may be applied to the antichristian times, the times of the grand apostasy, and falling away from the faith, upon the revealing of the man of sin; since which the holy city is trodden under foot; the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth; and the church is in the wilderness, and is hid there. Yea, to the second coming of Christ, when there will be great carnality and security, and little faith found in the earth. A like complaint with this see in Isa 57:1.
z “passive pro beneficiario, sive alterius beneficiis gratiosis cumulato”, Gejerus. a “Misericors”, Pagninus, Mariana; beneficus, Junius Tremellius, Piscator. b “Rari quippe boni”, &c. Juvenal. Satyr. 13. v. 36. c “serva”, Pagninus, Cocceius “da salutem”, Junius & Tremellius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 12:2-3) The sigh of supplication, , has its object within itself: work deliverance, give help; and the motive is expressed by the complaint which follows. The verb to complete, means here, as in Psa 7:10, to have an end; and the . . is equivalent to in Psa 77:9, to come to the extremity, to cease. It is at once clear from the predicate being placed first in the plur., that in this passage is not an abstractum , as e.g., in Pro 13:17; moreover the parallelism is against it, just as in Pro 31:24. is the pious man, as one who practises towards God and man. , primary form ( plur. ; whereas from we should expect ), – used as an adjective (cf. on the contrary Deu 32:20) here just as in Pro 31:24, 2Sa 20:19, – is the reliable, faithful, conscientious man, literally one who is firm, i.e., whose word and meaning is firm, so that one can rely upon it and be certain in relation to it.
(Note: The Aryan root man to remain, abide (Neo-Persic manden ), also takes a similar course, signifying usually “to continue in any course, wait, hope.” So the old Persic man, Zend upaman, cf. with its derivatives which are applied in several ways in the New Testament to characterise .)
We find similar complaints of the universal prevalence of wickedness in Mic 7:2; Isa 57:1; Jer 7:28, and elsewhere. They contain their own limitation. For although those who complain thus without pharisaic self-righteousness would convict themselves of being affected by the prevailing corruption, they are still, in their penitence, in their sufferings for righteousness’ sake, and in their cry for help, a standing proof that humanity has not yet, without exception, become a massa perdita . That which the writer especially laments, is the prevailing untruthfulness. Men speak (= from ), desolation and emptiness under a disguise that conceals its true nature, falsehood (Psa 41:7), and hypocrisy (Job 35:13), (lxx, cf. Eph 4:25, where the greatness of the sin finds its confirmation according to the teaching of the New Testament: ). They speak lips of smoothnesses ( , plural from , laevitates , or from , laevia ), i.e., the smoothest, most deceitful language (accusative of the object as in Isa 19:18) with a double heart, inasmuch, namely, as the meaning they deceitfully express to others, and even to themselves, differs from the purpose they actually cherish, or even (cf. 1Ch 12:33 , and Jam 1:8 , wavering) inasmuch as the purpose they now so flatteringly put forth quickly changes to the very opposite.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Complaints of the Times. | |
To the chief musician upon Sheminith. A psalm of David.
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 double heart do they speak. 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 sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that 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 them from this generation for ever. 8 The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
This psalm furnishes us with good thoughts for bad times, in which, though the prudent will keep silent (Amos v. 13) because a man may then be made an offender for a word, yet we may comfort ourselves with such suitable meditations and prayers as are here got ready to our hand.
I. Let us see here what it is that makes the times bad, and when they may be said to be so. Ask the children of this world what it is in their account that makes the times bad, and they will tell you, Scarcity of money, decay of trade, and the desolations of war, make the times bad. But the scripture lays the badness of the times upon causes of another nature. 2 Tim. iii. 1, Perilous times shall come, for iniquity shall abound; and that is the thing David here complains of.
1. When there is a general decay of piety and honesty among men the times are then truly bad (v. 1): When the godly man ceases and the faithful fail. Observe how these two characters are here put together, the godly and the faithful. As there is no true policy, so there is no true piety, without honesty. Godly men are faithful men, fast men, so they have sometimes been called; their word is as confirming as their oath, as binding as their bond; they make conscience of being true both to God and man. They are here said to cease and fail, either by death or by desertion, or by both. Those that were godly and faithful were taken away, and those that were left had sadly degenerated and were not what they had been; so that there were few or no good people that were Israelites indeed to be met with. Perhaps he meant that there were no godly faithful men among Saul’s courtiers; if he meant there were few or none in Israel, we hope he was under the same mistake that Elijah was, who thought he only was left alone, when God had 7000 who kept their integrity (Rom. xi. 3); or he meant that there were few in comparison; there was a general decay of religion and virtue (and the times are bad, very bad, when it is so), not a man to be found that executes judgment, Jer. v. 1.
2. When dissimulation and flattery have corrupted and debauched all conversation, then the times are very bad (v. 2), when men are generally so profligate that they make no conscience of a lie, are so spiteful as to design against their neighbours the worst of mischiefs, and yet so base as to cover the design with the most specious and plausible pretences and professions of friendship. Thus they speak vanity (that is, falsehood and a lie) every one to his neighbour, with flattering lips and a double heart. They will kiss and kill (as Joab did Abner and Amasa in David’s own time), will smile in your face and cut your throat. This is the devil’s image complete, a complication of malice and falsehood. The times are bad indeed when there is no such thing as sincerity to be met with, when an honest man knows not whom to believe nor whom to trust, nor dares put confidence in a friend, in a guide, Mic 7:5; Mic 7:6; Jer 9:4; Jer 9:5. Woe to those who help to make the times thus perilous.
3. When the enemies of God, and religion, and religious people, are impudent and daring, and threaten to run down all that is just and sacred, then the times are very bad, when proud sinners have arrived at such a pitch of impiety as to say, “With our tongue will we prevail against the cause of virtue; our lips are our own and we may say what we will; who is lord over us, either to restrain us or to call us to an account?” v. 4. This bespeaks, (1.) A proud conceit of themselves and confidence in themselves, as if the point were indeed gained by eating forbidden fruit, and they were as gods, independent and self-sufficient, infallible in their knowledge of good and evil and therefore fit to be oracles, irresistible in their power and therefore fit to be lawgivers, that could prevail with their tongues, and, like God himself, speak and it is done. (2.) An insolent contempt of God’s dominion as if he had no propriety in them–Our lips are our own (an unjust pretension, for who made man’s mouth, in whose hand is his breath, and whose is the air he breathes in?) and as if he had no authority either to command them or to judge them: Who is Lord over us? Like Pharaoh, Exod. v. 1. This is as absurd and unreasonable as the former; for he in whom we live, and move, and have our being, must needs be, by an indisputable title, Lord over us.
4. When the poor and needy are oppressed, and abused, and puffed at, then the times are very bad. This is implied (v. 5) where God himself takes notice of the oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy; they are oppressed because they are poor, have all manner of wrong done them merely because they are not in a capacity to right themselves. Being thus oppressed, they dare not speak for themselves, lest their defence should be made their offence; but they sigh, secretly bemoaning their calamities, and pouring out their souls in sighs before God. If their oppressors be spoken to on their behalf, they puff at them, make light of their own sin and the misery of the poor, and lay neither to heart; see Ps. x. 5.
5. When wickedness abounds, and goes barefaced, under the protection and countenance of those in authority, then the times are very bad, v. 8. When the vilest men are exalted to places of trust and power (who, instead of putting the laws in execution against vice and injustice and punishing the wicked according to their merits, patronise and protect them, give them countenance, and support their reputation by their own example), then the wicked walk on every side; they swarm in all places, and go up and down seeking to deceive, debauch, and destroy others; they are neither afraid nor ashamed to discover themselves; they declare their sin as Sodom and there is none to check or control them. Bad men are base men, the vilest of men, and they are so though they are ever so highly exalted in this world. Antiochus the illustrious the scripture calls a vile person, Dan. xi. 21. But it is bad with a kingdom when such are preferred; no marvel if wickedness then grows impudent and insolent. When the wicked bear rule the people mourn.
II. Let us now see what good thoughts we are here furnished with for such bad times; and what times we may yet be reserved for we cannot tell. When times are thus bad it is comfortable to think,
1. That we have a God to go to, from whom we may ask and expect the redress of all our grievances. This he begins with (v. 1): “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth. All other helps and helpers fail; even the godly and faithful, who should lend a helping hand to support the dying cause of religion, are gone, and therefore whither shall we seek but to thee?” Note, When godly faithful people cease and fail it is time to cry, Help, Lord! The abounding of iniquity threatens a deluge. “Help, Lord, help the virtuous; few seek to hold fast their integrity, and to stand in the gap; help to save thy own interest in the world from sinking. It is time for thee, Lord, to work.“
2. That God will certainly reckon with false and proud men, and will punish and restrain their insolence. They are above the control of men and set them at defiance. Men cannot discover the falsehood of flatterers, nor humble the haughtiness of those that speak proud things; but the righteous God will cut off all flattering lips, that give the traitor’s kiss and speak words softer then oil when war is in the heart; he will pluck out the tongue that speaks proud things against God and religion, v. 3. Some translate it as a prayer, “May God cut off those false and spiteful lips.” Let lying lips be put to silence.
3. That God will, in due time, work deliverance for his oppressed people, and shelter them from the malicious designs of their persecutors (v. 5): Now, will I arise, saith the Lord. This promise of God, which David here delivered by the spirit of prophecy, is an answer to that petition which he put up to God by the spirit of prayer. “Help, Lord,” says he; “I will,” says God; “here I am, with seasonable and effectual help.” (1.) It is seasonable, in the fittest time. [1.] When the oppressors are in the height of their pride and insolence–when they say, Who is lord over us?–then is God’s time to let them know, to their cost, that he is above them. [2.] When the oppressed are in the depth of their distress and despondency, when they are sighing like Israel in Egypt by reason of the cruel bondage, then is God’s time to appear for them, as for Israel when they were most dejected and Pharaoh was most elevated. Now will I arise. Note, There is a time fixed for the rescue of oppressed innocency; that time will come, and we may be sure it is the fittest time, Ps. cii. 13. (2.) It is effectual: I will set him in safety, or in salvation, not only protect him, but restore him to his former prosperity, will bring him out into a wealthy place (Ps. lxvi. 12), so that, upon the whole, he shall lose nothing by his sufferings.
4. That, though men are false, God is faithful; though they are not to be trusted, God is. They speak vanity and flattery, but the words of the Lord are pure words (v. 6), not only all true, but all pure, like silver tried in a furnace of earth or a crucible. It denotes, (1.) The sincerity of God’s word, every thing is really as it is there represented and not otherwise; it does not jest with us, not impose upon us, nor has it any other design towards us than our own good. (2.) The preciousness of God’s word; it is of great and intrinsic value, like silver refined to the highest degree; it has nothing in it to depreciate it. (3.) The many proofs that have been given of its power and truth; it has been often tried, all the saints in all ages have trusted it and so tried it, and it never deceived them nor frustrated their expectation, but they have all set to their seal that God’s word is true, with an Experto crede–Trust one that has made trial; they have found it so. Probably this refers especially to these promises of succouring and relieving the poor and oppressed. Their friends put them in hopes that they will do something for them, and yet prove a broken reed; but the words of God are what we may rely upon; and the less confidence is to be put in men’s words let us with the more assurance trust in God’s word.
5. That God will secure his chosen remnant to himself, how bad soever the times are (v. 7): Thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. This intimates that, as long as the world stands, there will be a generation of proud and wicked men in it, more or less, who will threaten by their wretched arts to ruin religion, by wearing out the saints of the Most High, Dan. vii. 25. But let God alone to maintain his own interest and to preserve his own people. He will keep them from this generation, (1.) From being debauched by them and drawn away from God, from mingling with them and learning their works. In times of general apostasy the Lord knows those that are his, and they shall be enabled to keep their integrity. (2.) From being destroyed and rooted out by them. The church is built upon a rock, and so well fortified that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. In the worst of times God has his remnant, and in every age will reserve to himself a holy seed and preserve that to his heavenly kingdom.
In singing this psalm, and praying it over, we must bewail the general corruption of manners, thank God that things are not worse than they are, but pray and hope that they will be better in God’s due time.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 12
EVIL SPEAKERS
Verses 1-8:
Help Sought Against Contemptible Speakers
Verse 1 is an abrupt, sudden cry, out of desperation, for the Lord to “help” or save, not “me,” but all the flock of the righteous; For they were about to be overcome by the wicked, on every side, v.7, 8; Mic 7:2. It was a time of national defection or rebellion against David as King. Falsehood was spread everywhere, truth no where.
Verses 2, 3 relate that Israel’s masses spoke vanity (vain things) “everywhere,” every one of his neighbors. Confidence could be put in the word of none. Of such lying, flattering lips, two hearted or two-faced talk, one to another, talking two conflicting ways to ones neighbors, Paul wrote, “putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” Jas 1:8 describes such duplicity as a “double minded,” (Gk. dispsuchos) man, lying deceiver, as also expressed, 1Ch 12:33. David then added that the Lord would “cut off” all flattering lips and the proud, boasting tongue, Isa 28:15. This conclusion is evidence that David had faith to believe that God would answer his “help Lord” cry of verse 1. In this way our Lord’s desires for His children to pray, even today, as expressed Mar 11:24.
Verse 4 adds that these lip-flatterers, boasters, proud, deceiving, two faced, double-tongued, enemies of God and David were vowing “with our tongue we will prevail,” triumph or to be successful, Psa 17:10; 1Sa 2:3; Dan 7:8; Dan 7:25. They even boasted “our lips are our own;” Then they challenge in damning defiance to David, “who is lord over us?” to prevent us from doing as we please, our own things? They rebelled against David as God’s king, see? Jdg 21:25. Like the Pharisees and Sadducees before Jesus they “would not have this man rule over us,” for they were at “enmity with God,” carnal, devilish, Rom 8:7.
Verse 5 recounts the Lord’s response to David’s cry, “help Lord,” v.1. Because of 1) the oppression, and 2) the sighing of the needy, the Lord declared “I will set him in safety, from him that puffeth at him,” in scorn, or boasts how he will ensnare him, rob and enslave him of all that he has, Psa 10:5. He who heard Israel cry in Egypt’s bondage, and David’s cry at this hour is still listening for cries of help and desperation from His own children, as they yield themselves fully to Him as their liberator, Exo 2:23-25; Exodus 3-9; Exodus 10; Psa 145:18-19.
Verse 6 affirms that the words of the Lord are “pure words,” like silver seven times purified in the earthen furnace until no dross is left, perfection has been reached, as the “number seven” is the number of perfection. God’s word of promise, covenant pledge of verse 5 is true; Yet David affirms that “all” His words were, as also certified Psa 119:160; 2Ti 3:16-17; See also Psa 18:30; Psa 119:140; Pro 30:5. Man’s words are flattering deceitful, boasting, proud, lying, but “every word of God is pure, as much above man’s word as mountains are above the valley and as light is above darkness, and hope above despair. The Word of God has been tried by criticism, by science, and by long experience of time and is found to meet man’s moral, ethical, spiritual, and social needs above the words of all those of men and devils, till today. Like a tried medicine for sickness, a tried friend in trouble, a tried ship in bad weather, a tried anchor in the time of storm, the Word of God has never failed our ancestors, and it will never fail us, Mat 24:35.
Verse 7 asserts that the Lord guards, preserves, and keeps those who cry to Him for help, as in v.1, hearing their cry and never deserting them, and all who cry to Him in need and in faith in all generations, Psa 145:18-19; Heb 13:5.
Verse 8 indicates that tho the vilest and most wicked walk in self exaltation now, on every side, for men to observe, let it be recalled that like the antichrist who exalts himself “above all that is called God,” they shall be brought low, judged for and in their base wickedness, 2Th 2:4; Psa 9:17; Psa 82:6-7.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
To the chief musician upon the eighth. With respect to the word eighth, there are two opinions among interpreters. According to some, it means a musical instrument; while others are rather inclined to think that it is a tune. But as it is of no great importance which of these opinions is adopted, I do not trouble myself much about this matter. The conjecture of some, that it was the beginning of a song, does not seem to me to be so probable as that it refers to the tune, and was intended to point out how the psalm was to be sung. (255) In the commencement David complains that the land was so overspread with wicked men, and persons who had broken forth into the commission of every kind of wickedness, that the practice of righteousness and justice had ceased, and none was found to defend the cause of the good; in short, that there remained no longer either humanity or faithfulness. It is probable that the Psalmist here speaks of the time when Saul persecuted him, because then all, from the highest to the lowest, had conspired to destroy an innocent and an afflicted man. It is a thing very distressing to relate, and yet it was perfectly true, that righteousness was so utterly overthrown among the chosen people of God, that all of them, with one consent, from their hostility to a good and just cause, had broken forth into acts of outrage and cruelty. David does not here accuse strangers or foreigners, but informs us that this deluge of iniquity prevailed in the Church of God. Let the faithful, therefore in our day, not be unduly discouraged at the melancholy sight of a very corrupt and confused state of the world; but let them consider that they ought to bear it patiently, seeing their condition is just like that of David in time past. And it is to be observed, that, when David calls upon God for succor, he encourages himself in the hope of obtaining it from this, that there was no uprightness among men; so that from his example we may learn to betake ourselves to God when we see nothing around us but black despair. We ought to be fully persuaded of this, that the greater the confusion of things in the world is, God is so much the readier to aid and succor his people, (256) and that it is then the most proper season for him to interpose his assistance.
1. The merciful man hath failed. Some think that this is a complaint that the righteous had been unjustly put to death; as if the Psalmist had said, Saul has cruelly cut off all who observed justice and faithfulness. But I would understand the words in a simpler sense, as meaning that there is no longer any beneficence or truth remaining among men. He has expressed in these two words in what true righteousness consists. As there are two kinds of unrighteousness, violence and deceit; so men live righteously when, in their intercourse with each other, they conscientiously abstain from doing any wrong or injury to one another, and cultivate peace and mutual friendship; when they are neither lions nor foxes. When, however, we see the world in such a state of disorder as is here described, and are afflicted thereby, we ought to be careful not to howl with the wolves, nor to suffer ourselves to be carried away with the dissipation and overflowing flood of iniquity which we see prevailing around us, but should rather imitate the example of David.
(255) “ Et que c’est pour exprimer comment se devoir chanter le pseaume.” — Fr.
(256) “ Tant plus Dieu est prest d’aider et secourir les siens.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE JUSTICE OF THE LORD
Psalms 11-13
HE can be truly trusted.
In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?
For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psa 11:1-3).
His knowledge is perfect.
The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lords throne is in Heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men (Psa 11:4).
His acts are vindicated.
The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; His countenance doth behold the upright (Psa 11:5-7).
THE JUDGMENTS OF THE LORD
They distinguish the righteous and the wicked.
Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:
Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
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 puffeth at him (Psa 12:1-5).
His words will never fail nor pass away.
The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever (Psa 12:6-7).
The exaltation of the vile is the chance of the wicked.
The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted (Psa 12:8).
THE MERCIES OF THE LORD
He is our Sovereign of the souls appeal.
How long wilt Thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt Thou hide Thy face from met How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily t how long shall mine enemy be exalted over met Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved (Psa 13:1-4).
He is the Person of the souls dependence.
But I have trusted in Thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation (Psa 13:5).
His blessing is the basis of our joy and rejoicing.
I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath dealt bountifully with me (Psa 13:6).
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
INTRODUCTION
This, according to the title, is one of Davids psalms, but there is nothing in the circumstances, so far as we know them, of his history which can lead us to associate the psalm with any particular period. Tholuck thinks it is aimed at persons by whom David was surrounded in the court of Saul. But it is not one or two prominent individuals whose conduct forms the burden of the Psalmists complaint. He is evidently smarting from the falseness and the hypocrisy of the time. The defection which he deplores is a national defection. Like Elijah in the desert, he feels himself alone. A taint has spread through society. Falsehood is everywhere, truth nowhere.Perowne.
DARK AGES
(Psa. 12:1-8.)
We observe:
I. The golden age of a country may be a dark age in the estimate of the saint.
The time of David, incomparably the best age in the history of Israel, and yet, viewed in the light of the spirit of holiness, an age so radically corrupt.Delitzsch. The age of David was in many respects the golden age of Israel, then it was great in literature, commerce, statesmanship, music, architecture, and arms. And yet David bemoans it, and sighs amid all its splendour. The true glory of a country is moral, and where the moral element is wanting, all other glories are dim. David felt that whilst palaces, people, chariots, gems, and gold, were on the increase, pious, honest, true-hearted men were on the decrease; nay, they seemed in danger of disappearing altogether, and he felt the gravity of the situation. David lamented over Jerusalem in the supreme hour of its material and political greatness; Paul overlooked the museums, pictures, statues, palaces of Athens, and his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry; and when we survey the magnificence of our country, we must weep to think of the atheism, the sin, the folly of the people. Philosophers, poets, commanders, artists, orators, statesmen, millionaires, do not make a golden age, but the presence of many virtuous and godly men, and where these are wanting, colours, marbles, jewels, domes, and plumes, are but dust and ashes. The age that we call golden, Heaven may call dark; the age that is written down in human histories as supremely august may be an age which angels record in Heavens Book of Lamentations.
We observe:
II. The faults with which a splendid civilisation may be chargeable.
Dr. John Brown says, In observing the advances of commerce, we shall find that in its first stages it supplies mutual necessities, prevents mutual wants, extends mutual knowledge, eradicates mutual prejudice, and spreads mutual humanity. In its middle and more advanced period, it provides conveniences, increases numbers, gives birth to arts and science, creates equal laws, diffuses general plenty and general happiness. If we view it in its third and highest stage, we shall see it change its nature and effects. It brings in superfluity and vast wealth, begets avarice, gross luxury, or effeminate refinement among the higher ranks, together with general loss of principle. The Jewish nation seemed to have entered on this latest stage. David charges his age
1. With the lack of faithfulness. The faithful fail (Psa. 12:1). Honest and true-hearted men were not to be found. Is there not a counterpart to this in our day? The immorality of trade is constantly deplored, and the strange lack of conscientiousness in all classes of the community.
2. With untruthfulness (Psa. 12:2). Insincerity and falsehood. That which the writer especially laments is the prevailing untruthfulness.Delitzsch. Is not this a feature of our times?
3. Pride. The tongue that speaketh proud things (Psa. 12:3). Talking big.Horsley. When did the tongue speak prouder things than now?
4. Boasting (Psa. 12:4). They declare themselves to be absolutely free, and exalted above all authority.Delitzsch. Is not this pride, arrogance, defiance, a characteristic of our day? The idea of the whole verse is, by our own lips and our tongues we can accomplish what we will.Alexander. And is not this the idea of this generation? Our puissance is our own: our own right hand shall teach us highest deeds, by proof to try who is our equal.Paradise Lost.
5. And the fifth verse seems to suggest that goodness is treated with contempt. Psa. 12:5-8 signify that at that time wickedness was the way to preferment, and that good men were the objects of persecution.Clarke. It is the fault of all high civilisations to think lightly of sin.Arnold. And out of this scepticism, pride, and sensuality, come crimes of darkest complexion and largest proportion, peculiar to advanced civilisations. According to the height of the mountain is the depth of the valley; according to the intensity of the light is the depth of the shade; and according to the wealth, freedom, learning, splendour of a nation, are its crimes exaggerated and its vices crimson.
III. Duty of the Christian patriot.
1. To cry mightily to God against the prevailing wickedness. Help, Lord! (Psa. 12:1). The effectual fervent prayer, &c.
2. To protest by word and act against this iniquity, as David did (Psa. 12:3).
3. To rest in days of triumphant wickedness in the word and power of God (Psa. 12:5-6).
4. To claim Gods promise, and keep himself unspotted from the world (Psa. 12:7).
THE CHARACTERISTIC OF A DIVINE REVELATION
(Psa. 12:6.)
We are taught here:
I. The grand characteristic of a Divine revelation.
The words of the Lord are pure words (Psa. 12:6). The words of men, as the Psalmist has just been showing, are mixed and impure, but Gods words are free from all base elements. Ignorance, prejudice, falsehood, passion, insincerity, impurity, debase the words of men, but not Gods words. Every word of God is pure. His words are true and righteous altogether. The words of men are the smoky fires of earth; the words of God are the starry lights of heaven, pure and cloudless, and which never lead astray.
We remark:
II. That the Scriptures which profess to be the words of the Lord have been tested, and their divinity established.
Where is this pure light? This Book claims to contain the words of God; its pretensions have been tried, and it comes forth as pure silver from the crucible.
1. It has been tried by criticism, its contents discussed and analysed, the genuineness, authenticity, canonicity, inspiration, of the various books discussed again and again. What is the result? Scores of criticsmen most sincere, acute, learned, honesthave tried these pages, and approved them as the handwriting of God. And if you go to the different schools of sceptical criticism, each school will give you back some portion of the Book as authentic and Divine, and amongst them all you get back pretty nearly the whole Book.
2. It has been tried by science. Says one of our great scientists: Science has established no results hostile to the evidences of Revelation. Neither the stars nor the stones fight against it. Buckland, Sedgwick, Hugh Miller, the greatest of modern geologists; Brewster, the most famous of modern astronomers; Faraday, the most illustrious of modern chemists; these splendid names were Christian; these master-spirits of the scientific world loved this book, found no fault with it, died resting upon it their immortal hopes. There is not much the matter with Revelation where it touches Nature, or these masters would have found it out.
3. It has been tried by experience. Do the Scriptures accomplish what they promise in respect to mans condition and necessities? Christ said to the Jews, If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. So we may say of the Scriptures.
(1.) They have been tried in relation to mans social necessities. According to the sceptic, the Bible is false in fact, false in philosophy, false in morals, and it ought to make society selfish, anarchical, barbaric. But it does not. It does the very opposite. Our civilisation has its roots in the Bible; and if you take the Bible to a pagan land, it changes everything into purer and milder forms. It creates everywhere the highest intelligence, the largest liberty, the purest morality, the truest progress.
(2.) They have been tried in relation to mans moral and spiritual necessities. It is just what we need. It gives us that light, pardon, liberty, purity, joy, for which we sigh. The Scriptures appeal to the multitudes whom it has saved from sin and misery, and exclaims, as Christ did, The works that I do, they bear witness of Me. The Scriptures have been tried by suffering men, guilty men, dying men, unsophisticated men, men of loftiest gifts, and they have found it just what they needed, all that they needed. By its fruits we know it. Know it to be no poison tree to destroy; no barren tree to mock hungering men with leaves and blossoms; but a tree of life, whose fruits satisfy the longing soul, and whose very leaves are for the healing of the nations.
We observe finally:
III. The consequent preciousness of the Sacred Scriptures.
Precious as purified silver. Precious in life, in death. We value what is tried. In sickness, a tried medicine; in trouble, a tried friend; in had weather, a tried ship, a tried captain, a tried anchor. Thank God! we have a tried religion. The Bible never failed our glorious religious ancestry, and it will never fail us.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 12
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
General Corruption, Evidenced by Sin of the Tongue, Impels to Prayer and Calls Forth a Divine Answer.
ANALYSIS
In Stanzas I. and II. (Psa. 12:1-4), the Petitioner Describes the Prevalent Sins of the Tongue, and Prays for the Excision of the Offenders. In Stanzas III. and IV. (Psa. 12:5-8), Jehovahs Answer is Announced and Amplified.
(Lm.) PsalmBy David.
1
Oh save Jehovah! for the man of kindness is no more,
for the faithful have ceased from among the sons of men:[103]
[103] Cp. Isa. 57:1-2, Mi. Psa. 7:2.
2
Unreality speak they every one with[104] his neighbour,
[104] Some cod. (w. 1 ear. pr. ed., Sep., Vul.): untoGn.
with a flattering lip and a double mind do they speak.
3
May Jehovah cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue that speaketh great things:
4
Them who have said To our tongues we give strength,
our lips are with us, who is our master?
5
Because of the spoiling of humbled ones because of the sighing of needy ones
now will I arise saith Jehovah:
I will place him in safety who panteth for it.[105]
[105] I will shine forth for himBr.
6
The promises of Jehovah are promises that are pure,
silver smelted down in a furnace to the ground[106]
[106] So Del. and similarly Dr. But Br. reads and renders the verse: When thrust down to the earth he shall be purified seven times.
refined seven times.
7
Thou Jehovah wilt keep them,[107]
[107] Some cod. (w. Sep., Vul.): usGn.
wilt guard him[108] from this generation to the ages.
[108] Br. renders this verse:
8
On every side lawless ones march about,
when worthlessness is exalted among the sons of men.[109]
[109] Though round about the wicked walk
When thou risest up thou dost lightly
esteem the sons of mankind.
(Lm.) To the Chief Musician.
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 12
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.
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 hearts content. Our lips are our own; who can stop us?
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.
6 The Lords promise is sure. He speaks no careless word; all He says is purest truth, like silver seven times refined.
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.
EXPOSITION
It is difficult to reduce to writing the successive impressions made by the study of this psalm. Who wrote it? Again that becomes an absorbing question; simply because, a candid and sympathetic investigation of the psalm itself insists upon a reconsideration of the prima-facie conclusion. It is inscribed to David; and we cannot lightly dismiss the presumption thence arising that he wrote it. Nevertheless the situation as a whole suggests another set of circumstances than any in which we know David to have been placed; and, inasmuch as we are learning to perceive an element of adaptation in psalms which are still reverently attributed to David as original author, we may feel perfectly free to look those circumstances full in the face.
Now there is no denying that David at the court of Saul had ample occasion to lament the mischief made by tongues that were at once flattering and false; and so it is easy to conceive that the original draft and for a time the permanent form of this psalm as it came from Davids pen began nearly as does the present recension of it.
All the same, the outlook, as it now stands in the very opening couplet, appears too broad to have come within Davids early survey of the sons of men. It is not in the least likely that, in those early expectant days, such a pessimistic conclusion would have forced itself on Davids mind.
Moreover, the desire that Jehovah would cut off all flattering lips seems premature while as yet the son of Jesse had not come to the throne; and when he could scarcely yet have felt such a sense of responsibility for the moral condition of the nation as would suggest such a prayer. Even when he had come to the throne the royal resolve to banish evil tongues from his court, and so discredit them to the nation, which we find in Psalms 101, much more commends itself than a sweeping prayer like this.
Still more conclusively in favour of a wholly different time is the underlying assumption which is seen in Psa. 12:5, which presupposes a whole class of humbled and needy ones for whose vindication Jehovahs interposition has been long delayed.
If these considerations were not forcible enough to carry our point,who can imagine David, at any time of his reign, admitting not only that lawless men were strutting about in the land, but that worthlessness itself was exalted, not only amongst a rapidly growing faction, as in Absaloms days, but generally amongst the sons of men?
It is remarkable how thoroughly the hypothesis of a revision of the original psalm by King Hezekiah, more particularly in the early days of his reign, meets the difficulties above suggested, and provides a situation which responds to all the leading features of the psalm.
From the known infidelities and weaknesses of Hezekiahs father Ahaz, we might safely have inferred the consequent corruption of the morals of the people; which, in any case, is independently attested by the early chapters of Isaiahs prophecies. As if to make surety sure, the opening lament of this psalm is almost verbally repeated by the two parallel passages referred to under the text above; namely Isa. 57:1 and Mic. 7:2. That Micah was an early enough witness, will be universally conceded; and if the so-called Isaiah II. was no other than the familiar friend of our youth, Isaiah of Jerusalem, then we have a combination of evidence which no gainsaying can overthrow, that in or about the time of Hezekiahs early reign there was quite sufficient ground for the sweeping opening lament of this psalm.
Nor is it from these parallels alone that confirmation of a Hezekian adaptation comes. For the words Now will I arise, saith Jehovah, of Psa. 12:5, are a literal quotation from Isa. 33:10; and, once we are in that remarkable chapter, another coincidence meets us. The singular descent from the humbled and needy ones in general to one particular suppliant in peril of Psa. 12:5 of our psalmI will place him in safetyis alone suggestive of Hezekiah; how much more so when, after Isaiahs beautiful description of the ideal Kingso strikingly realised in Hezekiah,he proceeds to say, He the heights shall inhabit, a stronghold of crags shall be his refuge (his lofty retreat) (Isa. 33:16)that is indeed being placed in safety!
Even the variations in the reading and rendering of Psa. 12:6 of our psalm, rather embarrass with a wealth of allusions than cause us any perplexity. We may confess to a strong liking to the longer form of that verse presented by the Massoretic text, for several reasons: as, first, for the occurrence of the poetic word imrah, which we render promise in Psalms 119, and of which Delitzsch here says: The poetical imrah serves especially as the designation of the divine words of promise which are so full of power, and, second, for the intrinsic beauty of the comparison of Jehovahs promises with smelted silver. And yet, after all, there is even a surpassing aptness of reference to Hezekiah himself in the shorter form preferred by Dr. Briggs, When thrust down to the earth he shall be purified seven times. Delitzsch rejoices in the longer form, and lovingly speaks of the hexastich as the gem of the psalm, whose brightness relieves the gloom of the psalms Massoretic ending, which he cannot deny. Briggs delights himself with the shorter form, as bringing the whole psalm within four stanzas of four lines each!
Even yet our easily borne embarrassments are not at an end. The gloomy finish to the psalm is mildly defended by Delitzsch, as above intimated; Perowne regretfully admits it, remarking, this return to gloom and doubt is, I believe, without parallel at the conclusion of a psalm; the which frank admission may prepare us for the drastic treatment of Briggs, who, by a new decipherment of the consonants, and in part leaning on the Septuagint and on Psa. 12:5, sets forth as the concluding couplet
Though round about the wicked walk,
When thou risest up, thou dost lightly esteem the sons of mankind.
This, says he, gives an appropriate climax to the psalm.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
Upon what adequate basis are we to conclude that Hezekiah edited the psalms of David? Discuss.
2.
If we conclude that there is a definite possibility that such editing took placeare we to believe that Hezekiah was divinely directed in his editing?why did he edit?
3.
Since some of our readers will not share Rotherhams explanation as including Hezekiahs editingplease relate this to the life of David and show how all the psalm can be related to David.
4.
Please remember God lives in the eternal everlasting NOWall the proud liars of Davids day (and Hezekiahs day) are destroyedGod does NOT live in the time-space sequence called lifehow does this help?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Ceaseth.Intransitive, as in Psa. 7:9.
The faithful.The Vulg. and Syriac treat this word as abstract: truth, faithfulness. So Ewald; but the parallelism here, as in Psa. 31:23, requires it in the concrete. (Comp. 2Sa. 20:19.) The Hebrew is cognate with amen, and Luther has amens leute, people as good as their word.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Help, Lord The call is abrupt, impassioned, and universal. The verb has no object, because the evil is not local and personal, but general.
The godly man ceaseth Better, the merciful man ceaseth; exactly parallel to Mic 7:2: “The good man is perished out of the earth.” The earth is given up to violence and rapine. On the use of , ( hhasid,) godly, merciful, see on Psa 4:3; Psa 86:2.
The faithful Literally, the amen people. Those who believe and speak the truth and keep their word. Men have ceased to regulate their conduct one with another by the law of kindness and truth. Compare the complaint of Elijah, 1Ki 19:10 ; 1Ki 19:14.
Children of men Sons of Adam, a designation of an earthborn, degenerate race, as opposed to “sons of God.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For the Chief Musician; set to the Sheminith. A Psalm of David.’
Again the psalm is for the Choirmaster. ‘Sheminith’ means eighth. It may refer to an eight stringed instrument, or to a musical notation. Again the psalm is a part of the Davidic collection.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
‘Help, YHWH, for the godly man ceases,
For the faithful have disappeared from among the children of men.
They speak falsehood every one with his neighbour.
With flattering lip, and with a double heart, do they speak.’
It is a sad day for good men when it appears as though all godly men have disappeared (compare Hos 4:1-2; Mic 7:2-6; Isa 57:1; Isa 59:12-15; Jer 5:1-4; Jer 7:28; Jer 9:2-6). It often seems to be the case, but it is never truly so. This godly man who writes the psalm is evidence of that, and he was not alone, even if he perhaps thought he was. He was like Elijah who thought only he was left (1Ki 19:10; 1Ki 19:14), only to learn that God had reserved for Himself seven thousand men who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1Ki 19:18).
But the situation was certainly bad. Deceit and falsehood were prevalent. No one could be trusted. Honesty between men seemed to have vanished. They lied, they flattered falsely, they spoke with double tongues, saying one thing and thinking and meaning another. The world seemed totally corrupt. They were bad times. So the psalmist cries out to YHWH for help, for deliverance. Surely He cannot allow things to continue as they are?
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Prayer for God’s Protection of His Church.
v. 1. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, v. 2. They, v. 3. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things, v. 4. who have said, With our tongues will we prevail, v. 5. For the oppression of the poor, v. 6. The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth v. 7. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, v. 8. The wicked walk on every side,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
ANOTHER Davidical psalm, both according to the title and to the general opinion of critics; said (like Psa 6:1-10.) to be “upon Sheminith”an expression of uncertain meaning. It consists of a complaint (Psa 12:1, Psa 12:2), a menace (Psa 12:3, Psa 12:4), and a promise (Psa 12:5-8). Metrically, it seems to divide itself into four stanzasthe first, second, and fourth, of four lines each; the third, of six lines. There is nothing to mark definitely the time of the composition; but its position in the Psalter, and its general resemblance to the psalms which precede, point to the period of David’s residence at the court of Saul.
Psa 12:1
Help, Lord; rather, Save, Lord, as in the margin (comp. Psa 20:9; Psa 28:9; Psa 60:5, etc.). For the godly man ceaseth. “Ceaseth,” i.e; “out of the land “either slain or driven into exile. We must make allowance for poetic hyperbole. For the faithful fail from among the children of men (compare, for the sentiment, Mic 7:2). The writer, for the moment, loses sight of the “remnant”the “little flock “which assuredly remained, and of which he speaks in Psa 12:5 and Psa 12:7.
Psa 12:2
They speak vanity every one with his neighbour; rather, they speak falsehood (Kay, Cheyne). Contrast the injunction of the apostle (Eph 4:25). With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak; literally, with lips of smoothness, and with a heart and a heart do they speak. The Authorized Version gives the true meaning.
Psa 12:3
The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips. The complaint having been made, a threat follows (comp. Psa 10:15; Psa 11:6; Psa 17:13, etc.). The men who flatter with their lips, beguiling and cozening their victims to get them completely into their power, shall be “cut off” from the congregation (see Gen 17:14; Exo 12:15, Exo 12:19; Le Exo 7:20, 27; Exo 17:10, etc.). And the tongue that speaketh proud things; literally, great things; but proud and lofty boastings are intended (comp. Dan 7:8, Dan 7:20). The same man sometimes cozens with smooth words, sometimes blusters and talks big.
Psa 12:4
Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; or, through our tongues are we powerful; i.e. whatever we desire we can accomplish through our tonguesby persuasion, or by menaces, or by skill in argument. Success in pleading before courts of law is, perhaps, included. Our lips are our own; literally, are with us; i.e. are on our side, are our helpers (“Nobis auxilio et praesto sunt,” Michaelis). Who is lord over us? Who, i.e; can interfere with us and impede our action? They do not believe in any righteous Judge and Controller of the world, who can step in to frustrate their plans, upset their designs, and bring them to ruin (see Psa 10:4, Psa 10:11; Psa 14:1).
Psa 12:5
For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. The ungodly having been threatened, a promise of assistance is made to the righteous whom they oppress. God declares that, in response to the many calls made upon him (Psa 3:7; Psa 7:6; Psa 9:19; Psa 10:12), he will “now,” at last, “arise”interpose on behalf of the oppressed, and deliver them (comp. Exo 3:7, Exo 3:8). I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. This is a possible meaning; but it is perhaps better to render, with Hengstenberg and Cheyne, “I will place him in the safety for which he sighs,” or “pants.”
Psa 12:6
The words of the Lord are pure words. There is no base alloy in them: therefore they may be trusted. What God promises, he will perform. As silver tried in a furnace of earth; rather, perhaps, silver assayed in a crucible on earth (Kay). Purified seven times (comp. Psa 18:30; Psa 19:8; Psa 119:140; Pro 30:5).
Psa 12:7
Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. God having promised to set the righteous, who are oppressed, in a place of safety (Psa 12:5), the psalmist is sure that he will keep them and preserve them from the wicked “generation,” which has possession of the earth, and bears rule in it, always. It is, no doubt, for the greater consolation and encouragement of these unfortunates that he dwells on the subject, and adds his own assurances to the Divine promise which he has recorded. Man’s faith is so weak that, unless promises and assurances are reiterated, they make little impression. Thou shalt preserve them (Hebrew, him) from this generation for ever. The “generation” is that of the worldly men in power at the time, of whom we have heard in Psa 3:1, Psa 3:2, Psa 3:6, Psa 3:7; Psa 4:2; Psa 5:4-6, Psa 5:9, Psa 5:10; Psa 6:8; Psa 7:1, Psa 7:2, Psa 7:9, Psa 7:13-16; Psa 10:2-11, Psa 10:15; Psa 11:2, Psa 11:3, Psa 11:6. “For ever” means “so long as they live.” The substitution of “him’ for “them” in this clause is an instance of that generalization by which a whole class is summed up in a single individual” all men” in “man,” “all good men” in “the righteous” (), and the like.
Psa 12:8
The wicked walk on every side. This can scarcely have been intended as an independent clause, though grammatically it stands alone. It is best to supply “while” or “though” before “the wicked,” as Dr. Kay does, and to translate, Though (or, while) wicked men march to and fro on all sides; i.e. while they have their way, and control all other men’s incomings and out-goings, being free themselves. When the vilest men are exalted; rather, and though villainy () exalteth itself among the sons of men.
HOMILETICS
Psa 12:4
Unbridled speech.
“Our lips are our own,” etc. If it be true, as we often say, that “actions speak louder than words,” it is also true that speech is a kind of action, and that words often speak more than the speaker means to utter. Light, thoughtless words, void of serious meaning, sometimes flash a light into the inmost chamber of the heart; they could not have been spoken if kindness, good sense, justice, humility, dwelt and ruled there. Profuse professions are often interpreted by the rule of contrary. When Judas said, “Hail, Master!’ he branded himself as a traitor, hypocrite, murderer. The text may not mean that these words are audibly uttered. The Bible speaks often of what men say in their heart. The temper and spirit which go with an unbridled tongue are expressed thus: “Our lips are our own.”
I. THIS IS A GREAT MISTAKE. Responsibility is not annihilated or lessened by our refusing to acknowledge it. We are responsible for our words as much as for the rest of our life. Our lips are not our own, because we ourselves are not our own (1Co 6:19, 1Co 6:20; Psa 100:3, Revised Version). God “giveth richly all things to enjoy;” but he can give nothing away; all is his still, and cannot cease to be his (1Ch 29:14; Rom 12:1). Responsibility to use God’s gifts in a way pleasing to him and to his glory increases with the preciousness of the gift. Who can reckon the value of speech? That without which reason would be not only dumb, but blind, deaf, paralyzedthe chief bond of human society, the instrument of truth, instruction, command, persuasion, comfort, converse. All life is “in the power of the tongue” (Pro 18:21). For good or for evil, even a short speech often long outlives the lips that uttered it. Not only “what is written remains.” Books and writings decay and perish, while “winged words” fly from land to land, and live on through ages. A great trust is man’s gift of speech.
II. A MORE COMMON MISTAKE THAN MAY BE THOUGHT. Thus boldly, coarsely spoken, it is indeed the language of atheism. But think of the enormous amount of idle, unprofitable, unkind, unjust, insincere talk poured forth every day; not to speak of what is wilfully false, impure, or malignant. What does all this mean but utter forgetfulness of responsibility to God for our use of this great gift? Passing sad, too, it is to think how it runs to waste; of all the words of counsel, comfort, kindness, prayer, praise, that might be spoken, but are not. The dulness of conscience on this point is astonishing. You may meet often with Christians who positively pride themselves on “speaking their mind,” no matter at what cost to others. People who would think it unpardonably wicked to strike a hard blow with the fist, think nothing of giving a stab with the tongue, which perhaps years will not heal (Jas 3:6).
III. It is not enough that we see the sin of unbridled speech, the reckless impiety of supposing “our lips are our own.” Let us take to heart OUR RESPONSIBILITY to our brother man, above all, to our Saviour, for our use of this noble faculty and priceless gift. “The fruit of our lips” (Heb 13:15) may be a “sacrifice” in other ways as well as praise. Remember our Lord’s warning (Mat 12:36, Mat 12:37). Meditate on what we owe to the words of those who have taught, counselled, cheered, and helped us; to the words of inspired men; above all, to the words of the Lord Jesus. “A word spoken in season, how good is it!” A kind word, a faithful rebuke, an honest avowal of faith and conviction, a manly protest against impure or ill-natured speech, may be the turning-point for good of some young life. “Let your speech be alway with grace” (Col 4:6; Eph 4:29, Eph 4:30, where note the remarkable reference to the Holy Spirit; Psa 19:14).
Psa 12:6
The preciousness of the Word.
“The words of the Lord,” etc. Thus the Bible bears witness to itself. We read often in Scripture of “the word of the Lord”not so often of “the words” of the Lord. By “the Word of the Lord” is meant sometimes a particular command, promise, or prediction; but frequentlyand usually in the New Testamentthe substance or sum-total of Divine truth (Psa 119:9, e.g.). But this phrase, “the words of the Lord,” calls attention to the actual utterances in which this truth is recorded for us. So our Lord distinguishes (Joh 8:43) between his “speech,” the particular form or method of his teaching, and his “Word,” his doctrine.
I. THE INSPIRATION AND AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURES. “The words of the Lord.” We must guard against such narrow, mechanical views of inspiration as would confine it to the Hebrew and Greek words in which it was written, so that one who reads a good translation would not have “the words of the Lord.” “The meaning of Scripture,” says Tyndale, “is Scripture.” Inspiration is the Holy Spirit working in men and by mennot as machines, but as living, reasonable beings. We ought not to speak of “the human element’ and “the Divine element” as separable or hostile. A great picture is but paint and canvas, informed, vivified by the thought and genius of the artist. You cannot say, “This part is paint, and that part is genius.” So in the Bible. “Men of God spake”there is the human element”as they were moved by the Holy Ghost”there is the Divine.
II. ITS TRIED AND PROVED TRUTH. The similitude is drawn from precious metal, whose worth and purity have been proved in the furnace, which separated the dross from the pure ore. The idea is not that we are to distinguish, in Scripture, dross from gold and silver, but that God has done so. He gives us not rough ore, but pure metal. But we may apply the image to the tests to which the Bible has been and daily is submitted.
1. The experience of those who have trusted it and gone by it. Those who have done this longest, most practically, with fullest faith, are the very persons most convinced of the truth and worth of the Bible.
2. Hostile criticism. For the last hundred years this has been especially fierce, learned, elaborate, determined, skilful. Had the Word not been pure gold, it must have perished in this fierce furnace. The result has been to shed a flood of light on the letter of Scripture, and to bring to light a mass of new and powerful evidence, bearing witness to its truth and genuineness. It stands both tests (1Pe 1:23-25).
III. ITS PRECIOUSNESS. It is worth all the care and trouble God has bestowed, by his providence and inspiration, on its composition and preservation; all the help and illumination which the Holy Spirit continually grants to those who read it with faith and earnest prayer; all the study given to it by friends and foes (Psa 119:72; Psa 19:1-14 :20).
CONCLUSION. Is it precious to you? Is this the witness of your own experience? If not, it must be because you have not really tried it.
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE
Psa 12:1-8
Hard, times.
This psalm has no indication of the time in which it was written. At whatever time, however, it may have been penned, there is no doubt about the general features of the age here represented. It was one in which good men were becoming more and more rare, in which the wicked abounded, and took occasion from the numerical inferiority of the righteous to indulge in haughty and vain talk against them and against God. The psalmist looks with concern and distress upon this state of things, and sends up a piercing cry to God to arise and make his glory known. We have in the psalm three lines of thought fierce trials; fervent prayer; faithful promise.
I. FIERCE TRIALS. They are not personal ones merely; they are such as would be felt mainly by those of God’s people who, possessed of a holy yearning for the prosperity of his cause and the honour of his Name, grieved more acutely over the degeneracy of their age than over any private or family sorrow. There were six features of society at the time when this psalm was written.
1. The paucity of good and faithful men (Psa 12:2).
2. Wicked men being in power (Psa 12:8).
3. The righteous being oppressed (Psa 12:5).
4. Falsehood, i.e. faithlessness.
5. Pride.
6. Vain-glorious boasting and self-assertion.
When wickedness gets the upper hand in these ways, times are hard indeed for good and faithful men. In such times Elijah, Jeremiah, and others lived, and wept, and moaned, and prayed. Many a prophet of the Lord has had to look upon such a state of things, when all day long he stretched out his hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people. Note:
1. This description of the degeneracy of the writer’s age is not a Divine record of the state of the world as a whole. The psalm is made up of words of man to God, not of words of God to man.
2. Still less is the psalm to be regarded as stating or implying that the world as a whole is always getting worse and worse. Let the student take the psalm simply for what it professes to bea believer’s moan over the corruptions of his ageand he will find it far more richly helpful and suggestive than on any forced hypothesis.
3. The special ills of any age may well press on the heart of a believer; yea, they will do so, if a becoming Christian public spirit is cherished by him.
4. There are times when Christian men have to sigh and cry, owing to the abominations of the social life around them; and when Faber’s touching words are true
“He hides himself so wondrously,
As if there were no God;
He is least seen when all the powers
Of ill are most abroad.”
5. And trials not less severe are felt when there is a widespread defection from the faith once delivered to the saints, and when men are calling for a “religion without God;” and are even, in some cases, forsaking Christianity for Mohammedanism or Buddhism. Through such trials believers are passing now. At such times they must resort to
II. FERVENT PRAYER. The psalmist gives expression to the conviction that nothing but the immediate and powerful interposition of God will meet the crisis (cf. Isa 64:1). In what way this Divine aid shall be vouchsafed it is not for the praying man to say. He must leave that with God, content to have laid the case before him. The answer may come in the form of terrible providential judgments, or in the sending forth of a new band of powerful witnesses to contend with the adversaries, or in a widespread work of grace and of spiritual quickening power. All these methods are hinted at in Scripture, and witnessed to by the history of the Church. Note: Such prayers as this agonizing “Help, Lord!” while they are the outcome of intense concern, are yet not cries of hopeless despair. True, our help is only in God; but it is there, and an all-sufficient help it will prove to beas to time, method, measure, and effect. In every age the saints of God have thus betaken themselves to him, and. never in vain. For ever have they proved the
III. FAITHFUL PROMISE.
1. The contents of the promise are given in verse 5.
2. The value of the promise, as proved and tried, is specified in verse 6. There is not an atom of dross in any of the promises of Godall are pure gold.
3. Having these promises, the believer can calmly declare the issue in the full assurance of faith.
(1) The false men and proud boasters shall be cut off (verse 3).
(2) The Divine preserving guard will keep the righteous from being sucked into the vortex of corruption (verse 7).
Note: The Christian teacher will feel bound to remember that in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the gift of the Spirit, and in all the resulting activities of the Christian Church, the Lord has put forces in operation for the rectification of social wrongs, more effective than any of which the psalmist dreamt, and that these forces have only to be given time to work, and “all things will become new.” The disclosures to this effect in the Book of the Apocalypse are an abiding source of comfort to God’s people in the worst of times.C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH
Psa 12:1-8
Christian growth.
I. TROUBLE MOVES MEN TO PRAYER. (Psa 12:1.) As the child instinctively cries to its father, so we cry to God. Society may wax worse and worse. The righteous may fail out of the land. It is hard to serve alone. Falsehood and lust prevail. There are fears on every side. In God alone is our help found.
II. PRAYER STRENGTHENS FAITH. (Psa 12:3, Psa 12:4.) There is some relief in telling our griefs. Further, we are cheered by the assurance of God’s love. He must ever be on the side of truth and right. More particularly we are encouraged by the record of God’s mighty works, and his promises to stand by his people. In communing with God, and casting our cares upon him who careth for us, our faith gains force and grows in ardour and activity.
III. FAITH INSPIRES HOPE. (Psa 12:5, Psa 12:6.) We remember God’s word, on which he hath caused us to place our hope. God’s promises are good, for he is love; they are certain, for he is faithful; they are sure of accomplishment, for he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think. Thus our hearts are revived. There may be delay, but not denial. There may be silence long, but never refusal. God has his own time and his own way.
IV. HOPE CULMINATES IN ASSURANCE. (Psa 12:7, Psa 12:8.) Light arises. The sky becomes brighter and brighter. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” All things are working to a perfect end. The prosperity of the wicked is vanity, and his triumph endures but for a little while. The end of the righteous is peace. “Thou shalt preserve them for ever.”W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 12:1-8
Lamentation over the growing corruption of the nation.
“The psalmist is appalled by the rottenness of society around him; unscrupulous ambition appears to rule supreme; truth is scorned as folly, and the god of lies is enthroned in the national heart. But God had not left himself without a witness.” Prophets and seers had already declared the Divine word of promise, that the righteous cause should be upheld and vindicated.
I. A DARK PICTURE OF DEPRAVED SOCIETY.
1. There were few conspicuous for righteousness. (Psa 12:1.) Not that they had entirely ceased, but that they were fewer than they used to be. “Say not that the former times were better than these.” Guard against this natural tendencynatural especially to men who are growing old.
2. The prevalence of unscrupulous falsehood. (Psa 12:2.) Lies and flattery and deceit. A disregard for truth was widely spread, one of the sins most destructive of social life. This spirit of falsehood infested their most intimate relations”every one with his neighbour “and would corrupt at last even the family relations.
3. They worshipped that which won for them their evil success. (Psa 12:3, Psa 12:4.) Lying and deceitthe evil power of the tongueprevailing for the time, made them feel that they were their own lords, that there was no higher power above them.
II. THE PSALMIST CONSOLES HIMSELF WITH THE DIVINE PROMISE OF PROTECTION. (Psa 12:5.)
1. That promise inspires him to pray for its fulfilment. (Psa 12:1-3.) All true prayer bases itself on the Divine promise. “If we ask according to his will, we know that God heareth us”
2. The Divine promise is pure from the alloy that corrupts the words of men. (Psa 12:6.) It has no admixture of flattery and deceit as the words of men have. “God cannot lie.”
3. That promise guarantees them protection, even when wickedness walks in high places. (Psa 12:7, Psa 12:8.) Wickedness is most alluring when in high places; but if God helps us to see that it is wickedness, and keeps our consciences clear and active, we are effectually protected from it. The defence against wickedness must be a Divine work within us as well as without us.S.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 12.
David, destitute of human comfort, asketh help of God: he comforteth himself with God’s judgments on the wicked, and confidence in God’s tried promises.
To the chief musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David.
Title. lamnatseach al hoshsheminith. See the note on the title of Psalms 6. This psalm complains of the falsehood and treachery abounding in the world; from which God is introduced as determined to deliver his people. Some conjecture that he points particularly at the corruption which reigned in the court of Saul, and more especially at Doeg, and the treacherous Ziphites; who promised David their friendship, with no other design than to deliver him up to Saul.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psalms 12
To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David
1Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth;
For the faithful fail from among the children of men.
2They speak vanity every one with his neighbour:
With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
3The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips,
And the tongue that speaketh proud things:
4Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail;
Our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
5For 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 puffeth at him.
6The words of the Lord are pure words:
As silver tried in a furnace of earth,
Purified seven times.
7Thou shalt keep them, O Lord,
Thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
8The wicked walk on every side,
When the vilest men are exalted.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Its character.A prayer of David (Psa 12:1 a) under the impression of the decrease of piety and faithfulness in the world (Psa 12:1 b), and the increase of shameless and careless deceitfulness (Psa 12:2-4). In moral indignation against this, he calls upon God (Psa 12:3), receives a promise of Divine help for those who request it (Psa 12:5); he shows plainly the reliability of the promise of Jehovah (Psa 12:6), and expresses confidence in His protection (Psa 12:7), once more referring to the present condition of corruption (Psa 12:8) The Divine promise does not appear in the form of a citation of a prophetical word already given (Ewald), nor as a mere poetical dress (Hupf.), but as a true prophetical revelation. Even Hitzig refers not only to the holy lot which David took with him in war (2Sa 5:19; 2Sa 5:24); but he brings to mind the prophetical character of David (Act 2:30), and regards him as competent to perceive a Divine word on the mirror of his soul which had been purified and unburdened by prayer.6 There is no reason for transposing the two last verses in order not to conclude with a crying discord (Hupf.). The psalm is a ring and that oracle is its jewel (Delitzsch).
Str. I. Psa 12:1. Help.[Perowne: save is more emphatic, because no object is expressed, vid.Psa 116:1, where in like manner the verb I love stands without its object.C. A. B.]Disappear.[A. V.: ceaseth. Barnes: Their conduct was such that their influence failed or was lost to the community.C. A. B.]Faithful.The Amen people, according to Luthers gloss. From the position of the predicate, before, in the plural, we would expect the persons to be mentioned, which also the parallel clause favors, as Psa 31:23. The double reason of the prayer does not force us to regard the plural as abstract = faithfulness (Sept. ), or faith (Syr.), which indeed is in itself possible.
Psa 12:2. Lies [A. V.: vanity].This is not to be referred merely to false, unprofitable doctrines (Cocc., Schmidt, et al.).Double heart.[Alexander: By a double heart we are probably to understand, not mere dissimulation or hypocrisy, but inconsistency and instability of temper, which leads men to entertain opposite feelings towards the same object. Comp. the description of the double minded man in Jam 1:8.C. A. B.]
Str. II. Psa 12:3-4. [Perowne: The burning of righteous indignation uttering itself in a fervent prayer for the uprooting of the whole kingdom of lies.The men here described are evidently men occupying a high position, smooth and supple courtiers, perfect in the art of dissembling, yet glorying in their power of saying what they list, however atrocious the falsehood or the calumny.C. A. B.]
Psa 12:4. With regard to our tongues we show strength.Hupf. translates: We are masters of our tongues; [A. V.: with our tongues will we prevail]; on the other hand Ewald and Olsh. with Geier et al.: we are confederates of our own tongues; Hitzig: we strengthen our tongues.Our lips are our own-[Wordsworth: the wicked say (or rather are with us, on our side), (comp. 2Ki 6:16; Psa 46:7). They rely on their lips, their smooth, flattering speeches fitted to deceive; on their proud and haughty words, able to overcome. This (they say) is our artillery, with it we are invincible.C. A. B.]
Str. III. Psa 12:5. I will set him in safety who panteth after it.Eum qui inhiat illi sc. saluti (Maurer, similarly Ewald, Olsh., Hengst., Delitzsch [Alexander]. Comp. Hab 2:3, where panting for an end is described with a similar expression. The translation of Geier, Rosenm., et al., against whom they puff [A. V., from him that puffeth at him], has against it the construction with . The translation adopted by Mich. and Hupf.=in order that he may recover breath=refresh himself, causes us to miss the object of the verb. [The translation of A. V. et al. is to be preferred. Barnes: By this construction, also, the connection with the main statement will be best preservedthat the inquiry referred to in the Psalm was done by words, by the breath of the mouththus indicating that by a word or breath they could destroy them.C. A. B.]
Psa 12:6. Work-shop.Since the etymology allows this translation of the obscure Hebrew word, and the additional words in the earth are best suited with this, because pure silver flows down out of the ore heaped up in the furnace, Delitzsch prefers this rendering, following Cocc., Mich., Gesenius, Olsh. It may, however, be translated melting vessel, that is, crucible or oven; but the earth must then mean either, in an oven belonging to the earth=enclosed with earth (Chald., Maur., De Wette, Hupf. [A. V.], which is against the usage of melting houses, or if it is only an indication of its place it is superfluous; or it must be connected with the participle = purified on account of the earth, that is from its earthly ingredients (Rosenm., Ewald et al.). Against this is the fact that does not mean the earth as material. The seven times is regarded by most interpreters as a holy number, by Saadia et al. as a round number. Following the Jewish interpreters (who, however, think of the sovereign of the land, among whom Vatab. understands God, vid. Hupf.), Hengst. and Lengerke translate: silver of a prince of the land, whilst they regard it as a secondary form of . Hitzig now translates: melted into the bar in the crucible. He regards =, Psa 68:30. Bttcher would read = to the lustre of white = to the pure bright mass.
Str. IV. Psa 12:7. This generation.[Perowne: Spoken of those who not only live in the same age, but are pervaded by the spirit of that age. So Isa 53:8. Here the world as opposed to the Church.C. A. B.]
Psa 12:8. If the wicked walk about on every side in accordance with the increase of vileness among the children of men.Some, as Grot., Rosenm., Umbreit, following Symm. and Jerome, regard as a particle of time [so A. V., when the vilest men are exalted], yet so, that they unite the statement of the reason with that of the point of time. But it is better to regard it as a comparison, because it then expresses a corrective and comforting judgment respecting the previous clause (Hupf.). Hitzig unites the letters to other words and gets the meaning, Unhappy destiny for the world of man! In the Chald. and Rabbin means fate, yet in the plural properly signa zodiaci; therefore Hitzig is inclined to think partly of some idiom of common life, partly refers to Jdg 5:20, where the stars actively interfere with human affairs. Formerly he translated: if they rise, a terror to the children of men. In a similar way Gesenius Thesaurus. On the other hand G. Baur prefers the translation of Hengst.: lowliness is for men as sovereignty; which is thus improved by Lengerke: humiliation is to the children of men as exaltation; which should mean: they will not long carry it onpride comes before a fall. Umbreit translates: The wicked walk round about, when the shame of the children of men rises. [Wordsworth translates thus: Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, Thou shalt guard him from this generation forever, although the wicked walk on every side because vileness is exalted among the children of men. The Psalmist foretells two things: that ungodliness will overflow, even unto the end; and that the righteous will be preserved from the flood of iniquity. And thus he prepares the way for the declaration of the Lord Himself in the Gospel concerning the latter days (Mat 24:12-13.C. A. B.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Those are bad times when the number of the friends of God and of the faithful decreases, and the number of the double-tongued, deceitful and false increases in the land. The pious in this case have much to suffer internally and externally, yet they must not only suffer and endure and not make much complaint, still less fear, but they must testify against the mischief and its causes, and constantly implore the help of God.
2. The ungodly sin not only with their tongues, but also in acts by which the members of the Church of God are oppressed and threatened. But in spite of their vain glory and great boasting they are not in the position to carry out their wicked devices. They accomplish nothing by their hypocrisy and flattery, and do not attain their end any more by their threats than by their deceitful enticements, or indeed by their slander. God watches over His people and protects those who sigh after Him.
3. In times of trouble God comforts the afflicted by His holy word, and awakens in the Church itself voices which testify to the truth of the Divine promises, and to the reliability of the hope of salvation which is based upon them.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The world attacks the congregation of the Lord but God defends it.It is not promised to the pious that they shall live without opposition; but that God will preserve them from the wicked generation and save them.The growth of the congregation is at times interrupted, but it cannot be destroyed; for the Lord is its help and its salvation.In the days of their affliction the pious have still, 1) the consolation of prayer; 2) the promise of the word of God; 3) the refreshment of the communion of saints.God answers the supplication of His people; will not the people respond to the promises of the word of God?The wicked man goes about for a short time, until he is cast down by the hand of God from his imaginary height. The same hand of God raises the pious from the depths of temporal need to the loftiness of eternal salvation.The demeanor of the wicked corresponds with the vileness of corrupt human nature; the conduct of the pious expresses the nobility of the children of God.
Luther: Only he who is true to God, is true to men; but faith and the grace of God are necessary to both.Calvin: God offers in His word only that which He will fulfill in deed.Starke: If believers have diminished already in the time of David, how much more now with us, who are near the last days, when little faith and love is to be found.If believers are few, then see to it that thou art found in the little band (Luk 12:32).Ye men, watch over your tongue and your heart, that the former may speak the truth, the latter be without guile. To speak unprofitable things is an impure fruit of a bad heart. So long as we are not humbled under God and bowed down in heart, so long we are exposed to the judgment of being rooted out.The sigh of the miserable awakens the vengeance of God; therefore trouble them not, else their sighs will make you anxious.The greater our need, the nearer God.The greater the fire, the nobler the trial.False doctrine is neither gold nor silver, but only scum.As long as we are in the world, we are obliged to be among the wicked, only we have to pray, that we may be delivered from their wickedness.Osiander: The pious are sown scantily, but tares grow of themselves.Menzel: Tyranny is indeed hard; but false doctrine is much harder; for tyranny kills the body, but false doctrine the soul.Frisch: Hold to the few believers that are left; but take to heart the universal corruption and lament over it to the Lord.Herberger: Help, Lord! That is short, but a good prayer.All saints must believe, and only believers are saints before God.Umbreit: Nothing hurts believers more than the lack of truthfulness and uprightness in the world.Stiller: We need not fight with human strength; our only weapon is the word of God.Diedrich: Gods people increase but slowly, and ever under the cross.
[Matth. Henry: There is a time fixed for the rescue of oppressed innocency, that time will come, and we may be sure it is of all others the fittest time.In singing this Psalm and praying over it, we must bewail the general corruption of manners; thank God that things are not worse than they are, but pray and hope that they will be better in Gods due time.Barnes: The fall of a professor of religion into sin is a greater loss to the Church than his death would be. There is usually a greater degree of recklessness among men in regard to their speech than in regard to their conduct; and many a man who would shrink from doing another wrong by an act of dishonesty in business, may be utterly reckless as to doing him wrong by an unkind remark.Spurgeon: Help, Lord! A short, but sweet, suggestive, seasonable, and serviceable prayer; a kind of angels sword, to be turned every way, and to be used on all occasions.As small ships can sail into harbors which larger vessels, drawing more water, cannot enter, so our brief cries and short petitions may trade with heaven when our soul is wind-bound, and business-bound, as to longer exercises of devotion, and when the stream of grace seems at too low an ebb to float a more laborious supplication.Jesus feels with His people, and their smarts are mighty orators with Him. By-and-by, however, they begin to sigh and express their misery, and then relief comes post-haste.C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
6[Delitzsch: The true Church of Jehovah was then as ever a Church of confessors and martyrs, and the sighing after the future of Jehovah was then no less deep than now the come Lord Jesus.C. A. B.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This is a short and pathetic lamentation over the languishing state of. the Church, and the decrease of the faithful. The sacred writer, however, takes comfort in the assurance, that God will preserve a seed in the heart.
To the chief Musician upon Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
Psa 12:1
The prayer begins beautifully. When faithful men are minished, to whom shall souls zealous for God’s glory look, but to a faithful God? The Lord hath so commanded; and he that bids to pray, is then coming forth in mercy to answer. Isa 62:6-7 . Reader, if there was more concern for Zion’s interest than there is, it would be well for the Church. It is much to be feared, that when the waters of the sanctuary are low, the people are not wrestling as they ought with the Lord in prayer.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 12:5
This verse was the text of a sermon preached by Dr. Fabricius before Gustavus Adolphus, when he took Augsburg after a severe fight, in which the honour of the day was given by the king to the Scottish Brigade under Colonel Hepburn. A solemn thanksgiving was held in the principal church, and religious liberty was proclaimed in the city of the famous Confession, while the ferocious Tilly, after his defeat, returned breathing out threatenings and slaughter.
John Ker.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Ideal Christianity
Psa 12
Help, Lord” ( Psa 12:1 ). That may be a good prayer or a bad one. There is nothing in the words themselves to indicate the quality of the petition. Everything depends upon the spiritual condition of the petitioner. A man may cry to God for help with a very selfish heart, without any due recognition of God’s claim, God’s nature, God’s kingdom. The prayers of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord. There is no meaner cry than “Help, Lord,” unless it be inspired by a sense of personal unworthiness and a profound and loving consciousness of God’s interest in good men and in good causes. A prayer may be forced out of an atheist. It is not a prayer; it is only a variation of atheism. The reason given, however, explains in some degree the scope and purpose of the cry: “for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.”
We must not accept these words as true, simply because they happen to be written here, or anywhere. It is perfectly possible for us to take an unwise and incorrect view of social conditions. David did not keep a register of all the “godly” and all the “faithful.” Another prophet said that he alone was left; the Lord corrected his estimate, and said, No, not alone; I have seven thousand who have never kissed the lips of Baal. It is unwise to take the opinion of dejectedness and forsakenness upon any topic. When we are in extreme positions, either of joy or of sadness, we are not qualified to pronounce broadly and correctly upon the whole scope of divine providence. In high joy, the glee that all but dances in the sanctuary for very ecstasy of heart, we may think all men good, all causes excellent, all the features of the times beautiful. In dejection, despondency, orphanhood of heart, we may think we alone are left, and that the gift of prayer will perish with our breath. All things wear a sombre aspect; the whole year is one long November; the very music of childhood is but an aggravation of our suffering That opinion must not be taken. Within the limits of the man’s own personality it is quite true, but no great generalisation must be built upon it. David did not know how many godly men there were in the world, or how many faithful; but his experience is valuable up to this point, namely, that he felt that everything of the nature of trust, confidence, progress, depended upon the presence of godly and faithful elements in the world. The world was nothing to him but rottenness an empty and mocking wind but for the godly and the faithful. That the population of the globe had increased was nothing to David, if the godliness and faithfulness of the community had gone down. We must inquire into moral statistics, into spiritual arithmetic; we must make our inquest into the social fabric an inquest of character, a scrutiny of motive and purpose; then we shall come to large and just conclusions. Woe betide us when, in looking abroad upon society, we judge only by its palaces and temples and towers, its banks and reservoirs of wealth, and do not look into spirit, disposition, character, and all moral elements. The good men of society are its rich men; the faithful are its bankers, treasurers, trustees, and securities. This is acknowledged even by persons who are not formally connected with the Church. Even the drunkard would like to entrust his business affairs to a sober man. Many an atheist, were he called upon at last to say into whose charge he would give his little children whether to a disbeliever or to a humble and tried Christian might, with his dying breath, vote for Christ. So men are not to be taken in their ecstatic moments, or in their moments of dejection; they are to be taken at the middle point, the average line, the thoughtful moment; and then it is seen that godliness, faithfulness, are accounted the pillars of society.
“They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak” ( Psa 12:2 ).
Here, again, we must ask whether David is speaking really, or speaking, as it were, sensitively allowing his own soreness of heart and conscious destitution to rule his judgment and obliterate features which he would otherwise be the first to discern and appreciate. But the declension is possible. Men may “speak vanity every one with his neighbour.” Vanity is a shifting wind empty words, compliments that come and go without carrying with them any moral impress or any spiritual value. Men may talk for talking’s sake. They may mislead one another, the words carrying with them no force of the heart or reasoned consent of the understanding and the will. The saddest of all things is described in this text in the words, “with a double heart do they speak.” A very apt expression in English; it cannot be soundly amended. The best comment upon this expression is to repeat it until we become reverently familiar with it. What, is it possible to have a double heart? Did not one man ask in sceptical wonder, and in a tone which involved denial, “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?” James put that possibility as an impossibility. He thought the very utterance of the inquiry was its own answer. He expected the question to be blown away with a contemptuous No. Yet this is the very thing we see every day, and feel to be true even in our own consciousness. Words are not straight lines; sentences are not clear as crystal; speeches are not as honey without wax, or porcelain without flaw. Charged with certain meanings, the speaker can easily betake himself to some hidden speech in his own sentence, some word that he had used in an unfamiliar sense; he can change the punctuation and set the thought in a new light; he can play many a knavish trick with language that ought to have only one clear meaning, the same value the world over, in dark days and bright hours. It is in this direction we must look for a great deal of Christian progress. What about our speech? Is every syllable like a dew-drop trembling on the eyes of the morning? Is every letter in every syllable an equivalent for the thought it was intended to assist in expression? Is the tongue the utterer of the soul, or is it bridled, partially gagged, somewhat distempered? Is it the servant of eloquence, or the bribed and hired slave of ambiguity and insincerity? It will avail us nothing that we speak religiously if we do not feel the religion that we speak. Christianity can have nothing to do with double-heartedness. The one object Christ has in view is to clean the heart, purify the spirit, drive out every devil from the sanctuary of the life, and make that sanctuary the temple of the living God. There are many ways of lying. We need not wonder that invention has found many symbols by which to express varieties of falsehood. Men exclaim, “Black lie!” Sometimes they say, not without a meaning smile, “That is a white lie.” Then, again, we hear of “great lie,” “flat lie,” “wicked lie” as if a lie could be other than a lie! Falsehood must not be allowed one rag with which to cover itself. Any covering of falsehood is an aggravation of the iniquity. The word “lie” must go without adjective or qualifying word of any kind. To palliate a lie is to repeat the lie, or give licence to the false speaker, to stimulate him to invent new forms of deception, and to give prizes for ambiguity.
David, then, traces somewhat of the cause of this vain speaking when he says there are people
“who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?” ( Psa 12:4 ).
Now David betakes himself to a great principle; in the fifth verse he says:
“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 puffeth at him.” ( Psa 12:5 )
There may be no more selfish words than these; they may in reality mean just the contrary of what they seem to say. When David makes himself the “poor” man and the “needy” man, and then says God will arise for such, he may be degrading the very doctrine he seeks to magnify. Who does not think that when he goes out to war the Lord is sure to be upon his side in the battle? Who ever suspects that his poverty and need have been brought upon himself by himself, and that the Lord is no wise responsible for them? The doctrine is true, but the question arises, Who are the poor and who are the needy? That. God will arise for them, there can be no doubt; but we must not unduly make ourselves into the poor and needy that we may take occasion of religious rejoicing that God will make favourites of us. Only let us be true and sincere in the inquiry. If we are poor and needy in the right sense, then all heaven is upon our side; if we have made ourselves poor and needy, or have suspected society of some injustice to us, simply that we may magnify our importance, we have mistaken the doctrine and misapply it. Who dare now preach that the Lord is on the side of the poor and the needy? We should need many qualifying terms in order to come to a right understanding about poverty and need; but there is a sense, profoundly and awfully solemn, in which the Lord is against the rich and for the poor. Do not hastily interpret that sentence, or put narrow and unworthy meanings upon it; and let no man consider his poverty a religion or his necessity a proof of his orthodoxy. We must discriminate the terms, weigh them in the balances of the sanctuary, put them in their right places and relations, and then take all the comfort God offers us. Society is its own god in too many instances. Parliaments imagine they can construct society, whereas society cannot be constructed, using that term in its widest and most solemn sense, except by him whose glory is shown by the heavens and whose handiwork is displayed in the firmament. We cannot make ourselves individually, nor can we make ourselves socially. Society is God’s idea, God’s structure; he putteth every one in his place; the whole gradation is settled by Infinite Wisdom. What have we done? We have meddled with God; we have changed the relation and the colour of things; we have coined words for our own use; we have made investments of each other; we have thought that he was the acutest and altogether worthiest man who could rise before his fellow, run before him, outwit him, tell him one thing and mean another, send him in the wrong direction, and then laugh at him when he returns at eventide disappointed and sore at heart. We can have no peace, and we can have no progress, until we ask Almighty God to reconstruct society, to pity us and forgive us for attempting to make society, when it was no more the business of ours to do it than to call up the sun or settle the bounds of the horizon. Whatever we can do in this matter is but cooperative; we are fellow-workers with God. He must build the social house. When he builds it, what a wondrous difference shall we see on all the face of the globe! no menial or undeserved poverty; no arbitrary and penal restrictions, no necessary ignorance of the very first principles of life and the very first duties of existence; no promotion on account of privileges and honours with which the individual man himself had nothing to do; but a grand recognition of the value of man as man, a Christian rule, a sublime theocracy; only one throne, and on it the Son of man.
What wonder if David compares the words of the Lord with the words he has been condemning?
“The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times” ( Psa 12:6 ).
We never know what the Bible is until we have been reading the newspaper. We cannot tell what Holy Scripture is until we have heard the lies of society. Never is the sanctuary so precious as when we leave the halls in which we supposed to see gaiety and joy, and the last phase of wisdom. Oh, ’tis rottenness! ’tis painted falsehood! ’tis vanity! We may dwell in the house of the Lord so long that it may become somewhat monotonous and wearisome to us, and the heart always playing tricks with itself may long to be elsewhere, to see the world, and watch its ways, and hear its music. Never is God’s Book so dear to a man as when he has been listening to other voices that appeal to him. We have never heard its music as we have heard it after voices of tempters and liars have been uttering their falsehoods in our ears. The house of God will stand when all things fail. God’s Book will be the last to go. We may neglect it, undervalue it, bring our own books into competition with it, and for a time the old Book may seem to be imperilled; but its day will come, and the great heart of man will say: After all, there is none like it; it touches every point; it is the same at night as at day; when it comes winter goes; when it speaks, the heart listens with all attentiveness; it is most when we need it most; what tragedy in its history! what sublimity in its poetry! what mastery of time in its prophecies! what tenderest pity, love, sympathy in its gospels! what eternity in its Cross! Oh, Word of the Lord, thy day is an eternal time!
Prayer
Almighty God, tender in mercy, thou hast kept back nothing from us that is good for us to know; the mysteries which thou hast hidden are better concealed than displayed. We have learned to trust thee. It is better as thou wilt, not as we will; we are impatient because we are weak, we are urgent because of our ignorance. A thousand years are in thy sight as yesterday, or as a watch in the night: to us how great is the period; how we are filled with wonder when we think of it, how we are overwhelmed when we attempt to seize the idea of time in all its vastness and sublimity! To thee there is nothing sublime but a broken heart, eyes filled with tears, and thy penitent ones crying for mercy at the foot of the Cross. This is thy sublimity. Thou lovest meekness, pureness, childlikeness, simplicity; thou lovest all the little flowers; thou takest up into thine heart all little helpless children. Rebuke our vanity, and turn our conceit to confusion, and show us that our strength is but a dying vapour, and that when we are weak we are truly strong, when we cling most to the Cross we are most beautiful in our Father’s sight. When the road is all uphill thou wilt not drive us quickly, thou wilt allow us to go at our own pace, according to our failing strength, yea thou hast provided on the road resting places, beautiful nooks, chambers in the rock; if we sit there and look behold the landscape is a landscape all summer, and the ascending brightening heaven is a glimpse of eternal glory. Help us to believe thee, to trust thee, to lean upon thee, yea to commit ourselves unto thee, to throw ourselves broadly and wholly without reluctance or reserve upon the omnipotence and the grace of God. Pity us wherein we have sinned; we are conscious of our guilt; against thee, thee only have we sinned; still thy mercy endureth for ever; may we forget the past and avoid all its evil, and be new and true and upright and noble souls in the future. To this end grant unto us the baptism, daily and continual, the baptism of the Holy Ghost; not of dew, not of water, but of purifying, testing fire; and at the end may it be found that the basket of summer fruit which our life presents is fruit acceptable unto God, because grown upon branches that live in the one Vine. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Psa 12:1 To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David. Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
Ver. 1. Help, Lord ] It was high time to call to heaven for help when Saul cried, Go, kill me up the priests of Jehovah (the occasion, as it is thought, of making this psalm), and therein committed the sin against the Holy Ghost, as some grave divines are of the opinion, 1Sa 22:17 . David, after many sad thoughts about that slaughter, and the occasion of it, Doeg’s malicious information, together with the paucity of his fast friends and the multitude of his sworn enemies at court, breaks forth abruptly into these words, “Help, Lord,” help at a dead lift. The Arabic version hath it, Deliver me by main force, as with weapons of war, for the Lord is a man of war, Exo 15:3 .
For the godly man ceaseth
For the faithful fail
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
This is “To the chief musician on the octave: a psalm of David,” as in Psa 6 . It is the plaintive prayer of the gracious man in presence of growing lawlessness; then comes in the value of Jehovah’s words before Himself arises to judge. Wickedness increases where righteousness was looked for. Such was the dreary state when Christ Himself was on earth, Who speaks of “this generation:” clearly a moral estimate which still abides, and will be found more and more till judgment overtake. It has nothing to do with a human life or chronology, as the context here unequivocally proves. Compare Psa 14:5 .
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 12:1-5
1Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be,
For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
2They speak falsehood to one another;
With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.
3May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
The tongue that speaks great things;
4Who have said, With our tongue we will prevail;
Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?
5Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy,
Now I will arise, says the Lord; I will set him in the safety for which he longs.
Psa 12:1 Help, Lord What a powerful cry for help (BDB 446, KB 448, Hiphil imperative). In the OT this term has the implication of physical deliverance but in the NT it takes on the emphasis of spiritual salvation. See SPECIAL TOPIC: SALVATION (OLD TESTAMENT TERM) .
I have often thought how sad it would be for someone to be physically delivered (i.e., health, war, financial) but miss the joy and benefit of spiritual deliverance! In the NT healing did not always result in a spiritual transformation. What humans need most is God, not a change of circumstances!
for the godly man ceases to be Notice the parallelism between line 1 and line 2. These both speak of the death of faithful followers. This is a corporate lament, although the LXX has me in Psa 12:1-2.
For faithful (BDB 52 I) see Special Topic below.
SPECIAL TOPIC: Believe, Trust, Faith, and Faithfulness in the Old Testament ()
NASB, NKJV,
NRSVdisappeared
LXX, NJB,
JPSOA, REBvanished
The cease to be of line one is parallel to this word (BDB 821 II), which is found only here in the OT. Some suggest a different root (BDB 67) which is found in Isa 16:4.
The UBS Text Project (p. 177) offers two ways to understand this verb.
1. their numbers are greatly reduced (LXX)
2. they have completely disappeared (cf. Psa 12:1 a and Psa 12:3 a)
Psa 12:2-4 Notice the theme of speaking (i.e., lips, tongue). The false message of the double-hearted person is contrasted with the true message of YHWH’s revelation (cf. Psa 12:6).
Every day believers must ascertain which messages they hear are true/false; from fallen humanity/from God (cf. Deu 13:1-5; Deu 18:14-22; Matthew 7; 1Jn 4:1-3)!
Psa 12:2 speak falsehood This is literally emptiness or vanity (BDB 996). This emptiness of speech is a recurrent theme (cf. Psa 41:6; Psa 144:8; Psa 144:11; Pro 30:9; Isa 59:4; Eze 13:8-9; Hos 10:4).
In some contexts it is used of false testimony (cf. Exo 20:16; Exo 23:1; Deu 5:20) in court. In other places it refers to false prophecies (cf. Lam 2:14; Eze 22:28; Zec 10:2).
One thing is sure, this word characterizes false followers! Their mouths reveal their double heart (cf. Psa 12:2; Mat 12:34; Mat 15:18; Mar 7:20-23; Luk 6:45; Jas 3:2-12).
Psa 12:3 The psalmist calls on YHWH to silence (lit. cut off BDB 503, KB 500, Hiphil jussive) the
1. flattering lips (lit. smooth lips, cf. Psa 5:9)
2. tongue that speaks great things
Psa 12:4 This verse shows the true heart of the double heart (lit. a heart and a heart). This person is one who does not allow YHWH to control his/her life! This is the essence of fallen humanity’s attitude.
Who have said The NASB Study Bible (p. 751) reminds us that the psalmist often quotes or alludes to the false words of the wicked (cf. Psa 3:2; Psa 10:11; also note 2Pe 3:1-4; Jud 1:18-19).
Psa 12:5 YHWH explains why He will arise (BDB 877, KB 1086, Qal imperfect, see full note at Psa 3:7).
1. because of the devastation of the afflicted
2. because of the groaning (BDB 60 I) of the needy
YHWH is affected by the prayers and circumstances of His people (i.e., Exo 3:7; Exo 2:25; Neh 9:9; Isa 63:9; Act 7:34). YHWH (unlike the idols) is the God who hears, sees, and acts!
safety This noun (BDB 447) is from the verb help (BDB 446, KB 448) used in Psa 119:1. It seems to be similar to an Arabic root which denotes that which is wide or spacious (cf. Psa 4:1; Psa 31:8; Psa 118:5). This is the opposite idiom from narrow or stressed.
he longs This verb (BDB 806, KB 916, Hiphil imperfect) basically means to breathe or to blow out breath.
1. used of YHWH’s snorting in disgust Psa 10:5
2. used of testimony in court Pro 6:19; Pro 12:17; Pro 14:5; Pro 14:25; Pro 19:5; Pro 19:9
3. in the cool of the day Son 2:17; Son 4:6
4. used of panting or sighing for something
a. place of safety Psa 12:5
b. vision being fulfilled Hab 2:3
The LXX translates this line of poetry as YHWH speaking, I will place in safety; I will speak freely against it (or him’). The JPSOA has I will give help, He affirms him.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
To the chief Musician. See App-64.
upon Sheminith = the Sheminith. See App-65.
Title. A Psalm. See App-65.
Help = Save.
godly man = “gracious [man]”.
ceaseth = is no more. Compare Isa 57:1. Mic 7:2.
faithful. Figure of speech Metonymy (of Adjunct), App-6, put for faithful men.
children of men = sons of men. (Hebrew ‘adam. App-14.)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 12:1-8
The chief musician upon octaves, the psalm of David. Psa 12:1-8 .
Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men ( Psa 12:1 ).
Remember when Elijah said, “Lord, they have all bowed their knee to Baal and I, only I am left. Lord, the righteous man ceases. There is none left.”
“Help, Lord. The faithful fail from among children of men.”
They speak emptiness every one with his neighbor: with flattering lips and a double heart do they speak ( Psa 12:2 ).
He has been around Hollywood.
The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue of those that speak proud things: who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, and for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD ( Psa 12:3-5 );
So God’s answer. He is praying, “Help, Lord. The godly ceaseth. People are just, you know, speaking vanity, everyone with his neighbor, flattering, and they are saying ‘Hey, we’ll do it with our lips, you know. We’ll prevail with our tongues and all.'” And so God answers, “For the oppression of the poor and for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord.”
I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him ( Psa 12:5 ).
And so the psalmist responds,
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted ( Psa 12:6-8 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 12:1. Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
One might have thought that David still lived among us, his cry is so timely, so exactly true to the position of affairs today. What a prayer he offers! Driven away from confidence in men, he cries, Help, Lord! Thou mighty One, put forth thy power! Thou faithful One, display thy truth! Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
Psa 12:2. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
They speak vanity; there is nothing in it. It is all froth, no reality; vain speech about vain subjects, having no real spiritual power to help the man that heareth: They speak vanity. With a double heart do they speak: saying one thing, and meaning another; trifling with words; orthodox to the ear, heterodox to the heart. Oh, how much there is of this falseness in these days! Still are there many who speak with flattering lips and with a double heart. It is some comfort to us to know that no new thing has happened unto us; we are merely going through an old part of the road which David traversed long ago.
Psa 12:3-4. The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things: who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
There is the point in dispute. Man will be lord of himself, and God will be Lord of all and everything; and there can be no compromise between these two. Not even a mans lips are really his own. Who gave the gift of speech? Who created the mouth? Who is LORD over us? Why, the answer is simple enough! He that made us, he that redeemed us, he should be Lord over us. Let us willingly put ourselves in subjection to him.
Psa 12:5. For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD;
God takes notice of the oppression of poor men, and especially of poor saints when they are tried by the wickedness of the age: Now will I arise, saith the Lord.
Psa 12:5-6. I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
There is no mistake about the words of this blessed Book. The very words themselves are as accurate, as infallible, as silver is pure when it has been seven times refined by the most skillful artist. There is no improving upon Gods words. We dare not leave one of them out. We would not presume to put one of our own side by side with them: The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Psa 12:7-8. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
When sin gets into the high places of the earth, then it becomes very abundant. Every evil man takes liberty to creep out into public life when some great leader in vice occupies the throne. God save the people when such is the case!
This exposition consisted of readings from PSALMS 12, 13, and 14.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Psa 12:1
SUPPLICATION IN A TIME OF DEGENERACY
(FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN; SET TO THE SHEMINITH. A PSALM OF DAVID).
The title we have selected here is from Arnold B. Rhodes, The age of David was in some ways the Golden Age of Israel, but here is a revelation that the moral condition of society as a whole was one of the utmost degeneracy.
Psa 12:1-2
“Help, Jehovah; for the godly man ceaseth;
For the faithful fail from among the children of men.
They speak falsehood everyone with his neighbor:
With flattering lips and a double heart, do they speak.”
It would seem that the small remnant of the righteous which always existed in Israel was here forgotten in these first two verses, or perhaps we have merely an hyperbole for the sake of emphasis.
The universality of wickedness among the rebellious sons of Adam has been throughout human history a frequently recurring phenomenon. The particular type of immorality that existed in the situation described here seems to have been that of speech. An entire society had completely lost control of their tongues. Falsehood, flattery, deceit, slander, gossip, hypocrisy, derogation, belittling, discrediting, libel, calumniation, traducement, backbiting, cheating, misleading, tricking, hoaxing, and victimizing are just a few of the sins of the tongue; and the three particular ones mentioned in these two verses are to be understood merely as examples of the countless outrages perpetrated by tongues out of control.
“These two verses are a statement of the prevailing condition of things, announced here as a reason why it was proper for God to interpose.
The very basis of Christianity is that of absolute truthfulness, sincerity, and love. No child of God may lawfully do anything other than “Speak the truth” (Eph 4:15). Moreover, the Scriptures specifically promise that “All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev 21:8).
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 12:1. We must take this verse in a comparative sense, for we know that there have always been some godly and faithful men. But the percent of them is and was so small that David felt the need of divine help.
Psa 12:2. Speak vanity means to say things that are empty and without sound thought. Double heart is a figure meaning a heart that is not sincere; one that will cause its owner to say one thing today and another tomorrow.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Out of a consciousness of the terrible evil of his times, the worshiper cries to Jehovah for help. The failure of godly men and faithful souls is always the gravest peril which can threaten a nation or an age. There is no trouble which more heavily afflicts the heart of the trusting. The note here is more characterized by faith than that of Psa 10:1-18. Here is a cry for help but no suggestion that God is indifferent. Indeed, there is an immediate affirmation of confidence in the interest and interference of God. It is very beautiful to notice how, in answer to the cry and the affirmation of confidence, Jehovah speaks so that the singer hears Him and is able to announce Jehovah’s response before the song ceases.
This answer of Jehovah is most precious. It promises the preservation of the trusting. The psalmist breaks out in praise of the purity of Jehovah’s words and declares that Jehovah will “keep them” and “preserve them.” The “them” here refers to the words. There is no promise of widespread revival or renewal. It is the salvation of a remnant and the preservation of His own words which Jehovah promises. Thus the psalm ends with a description of the same condition which it at first describes. It is the cry of a godly soul for help amid prevailing ungodliness and it is answered.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
God Our Refuge and Defense
Psa 11:1-7; Psa 12:1-8
The first of these is a debate between fear and faith, and dates from Sauls persecutions. Timid friends, anxious for Davids safety, urged him to flee to the mountains. Such counsels of expediency are frequently given to the servants of God, Neh 6:1-19. Luthers diaries are full of such references. But unless our duty is performed, we must stand our ground; we can do no other. We must remember that Gods love is with us, and that He always exchanges glances of love with His suffering ones. Compare Psa 11:7 with Exo 3:7.
The opening words of the next psalm appeal for help in bad and evil days. See Mic 7:2. A double heart is literally a heart and a heart, Psa 12:2. Let us be true in act and speech, else we forfeit the Spirit of truth, Eph 4:25; Col 3:9. Our sighing will make God arise, Act 7:56. We shall be helped and kept, Psa 12:7 and Isa 54:17.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
And now in the last five Psalms of this series you have what might be likened to a little song book, a hymn book for the oppressed people of God in that dark day. Do you know why the people of Scotland love the Psalms so much? They learned to love them when they were being persecuted by those who sought to destroy the Scottish church; and when the Covenanters had to hide in the hills for their safety they sang these Psalms as fitting their exact circumstances, and how much they meant to them. There they were, driven out on the mountainside to hold their meetings for worship and for prayer and praise. It must have been a wonderful thing to hear a company of them lifting up their voices in one of these Psalms.
Suppose you were one of the remnant of Israel in the coming day and you have met with a few of His people while the agents of the antichrist are spying on you. How beautifully these Psalms would fit as you would lift up the heart to God. In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? Is it not strange that people would ever sing that old song, Flee as a bird to your mountain? It suggests that it is perfectly right to flee as a bird to your mountain, but that is not what David is telling us here. He says, My trust is in the Lord-though the people may say, Flee as a bird to your mountain, I will not do it; I will go to the Lord Himself for He is my refuge; He is my strength. I need to go to Him-for, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lords throne is in heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth. The wicked are looking on; they know that the day is near when the Lord will be manifested and, Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; His countenance doth behold the upright.
All of these Psalms, up to Psalm 15, express the same thing, the suffering people, the afflicted people committing their cause to God and counting on Him to bring them through in triumph at last.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Psalm 12
1. The arrogance of the wicked in the last days (Psa 12:1-4)
2. Then Jehovah will act and deliver His people (Psa 12:5-8)
Psa 12:1-4. It is the time of departure from the Lord; the godly and faithful have ceased. It is a mass of corruption, lying lips, flattering lips, proud lips. They reject the Lord. Who is lord over us?
Psa 12:5-8. Then faith sees the coming intervention. The Lord will speak. Now will I arise, saith Jehovah, I will set him in safety whom they would puff. Jehovah will keep His people in these coming dark days, when the wicked walk on all sides and the vilest men are exalted.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Sheminith
(See Scofield “Psa 6:1”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Help: or, Save, Psa 3:7, Psa 6:4, Psa 54:1, Mat 8:25, Mat 14:30
godly: Gen 6:12, Isa 1:9, Isa 1:21, Isa 1:22, Isa 57:1, Isa 63:5, Jer 5:1, Mic 7:1, Mic 7:2, Mat 24:12
faithful: Pro 20:6, Isa 59:4, Isa 59:13-15
Reciprocal: 2Ki 13:14 – he died 1Ch 12:17 – If ye be come 1Ch 15:21 – Sheminith to excel 1Ch 16:7 – into the hand Job 30:25 – was Psa 6:1 – Sheminith Psa 60:4 – because Ecc 7:28 – one Isa 59:15 – truth Amo 7:2 – for Hab 1:3 – General 2Pe 2:9 – the godly
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Man’s lying words contrasted with Jehovah’s pure ones.
To the chief musician, upon Sheminith. A psalm of David.
The second puts in sharp contrast the lying words of men with Jehovah’s pure ones, which bring moreover with them the assurance of salvation to the soul. The outlook otherwise is dark enough, and the psalm is in the same low notes (al sheminith) as the fourth of the former series (Psa 6:1-10). It is characteristic of antichristian times that deception should be so marked a feature, and that they should say, “With our tongues will we prevail.” Not that such words have reference necessarily to the poison of false doctrine; but that, as during an epidemic, other diseases take on more or less the prevailing form so under the shadow Of one great deception every form of deception may be hid. And yet, remembering what for the inspired writer the tongue is, we need not be at much loss for the application of the psalm before us to the world round about us today, and indeed take home to ourselves also its warnings.
1. It divides into two equal parts, in the first of which man is the subject, in the second God is before us. With man, his misery and his evil are, that, fallen away from God, believing in His love and care no more, he is become himself the object of his own self-love and care. Self rules him, subjects him, degrades, corrupts him, turns him from the minister of blessing that he should be into the oppressor and scourge of all creation under him.
Here the mass are one, there is no godly man left, the faithful are gone from among the children of men. Their mouth is filled with falsehood, they have the smoothest of lips, and a double heart. Against all such Jehovah will manifest Himself, and against the tongue that speaks great things.
What is it that they say? According to Delitzsch and others we should read, “To our tongues we will give strength,” that is, we will talk as loudly as we please; but such a meaning might, one would think, be more simply conveyed. Holding by the common translation, which the Revised Version retains, there results a possible meaning, which for its folly might be discarded as impossible, and which yet may be the meaning here. Nothing can, after all, be too foolish for the lying lips which are the outcome of a deceitful heart, capable of deceiving the very man who is its possessor. Do not men know that they must die? Yet is it not the business of the mass to ignore it, forget it, make the truth untrue? And so the forty-ninth psalm speaks: “Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling-places to all generations; they call the lands after their own names. . . . This their way is their folly; yet their posterity” -or “the men that come after them” -“approve their sayings.”
Is not this in effect to say -is it not the real meaning of -“by our words we will prevail,” -“we will have the thing so by mere effrontery”? The untrue shall be true if we pronounce it true?
Doubtless a man would never say this openly; would not proclaim so openly a battle with the fact; would not even frame such a thought in speech. But that is just the desperate deceit of the heart, that it can so prevail over the reason; and the numerical structure may just point to the weakness underlying the boasting of the tongue, -this mere puff of breath, as it is, -vox et praeterea nihil. And he may be fitly made to say what in fact he would not care to say, who yet in his life makes just this folly his.
Lips and heart here have broken loose from the curb of divine authority: “who is lord over us?” is the cry. What more than a mere puff of breath is this, save for its wickedness?
2. Jehovah’s word comes here into swift opposition to all this; yet it is love and pity that move Him to action, -the oppression of the poor, the sighing of the needy. His promise pledges His interference; whereupon faith celebrates, before this comes, the “pure” words of the Lord, unmixed with any alloy of insincerity or untruth, -words that are like silver, the current medium of exchange, completely purified.
In fact, this is realized. Jehovah keeps His people, yea, preserves them forever from the generation of the false-hearted. Yet the wicked walk around; and so it must be when “vileness” -what should be shaken out and cast away -is held in a place of honor among men. This is the condition of things now among the people once the special people of Jehovah.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Psa 12:1. Help, Lord Hebrew, , hoshigna, save, Jehovah; namely, me and other good men, from the subtlety and rage of wicked men; for the godly man ceaseth , chasid, the kind, or, merciful man, as the word properly means. The faithful fail, &c. Men have lost, not only serious piety, that even truth and honesty in their conversation and dealings with men. The universal depravity of Jew and Gentile caused the church of old to pray earnestly for the first advent of Christ; and a like depravity among those who call themselves Christians may induce her to pray no less earnestly for this appearance the second time unto salvation. Horne.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 12:1. Help, Lord; for the godly, Hebrews 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. 1Sa 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.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
XII. A Prayer of Faithful Jews against the Arrogant Tongue of the Ungodly.
Psa 12:1-4. The godly man ceaseth (see Psa 4:1-5). The wicked acknowledge no responsibility for their words: they say, To our tongues we give might, i.e. free rein.
Psa 12:5-8. Yahweh declares His intention of rising in defence of the poor and needy. Here the author quotes (unless the identity of the words be mere coincidence) Isa 33:10. He relies on a Divine promise there given, to which he now (Psa 12:5 b) appeals. Well may he rely on the promise, for Yahwehs words are like silver purified from dross seven times over. The Ps. must be very late, if it really quotes Isaiah 33* as Scripture, for that chapter probably belongs to the second century B.C.
Psa 12:6. furnace on the earth: the words are of unknown meaning.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
PSALM 12
The Lord, and His words, the resource of the righteous in a day when the faithful fail from among those who profess the name of God, and when lawlessness and wickedness prevail on every side.
This psalm presents a contrast to Psalm 11. There, the evil is working in secret: here, it flaunts itself in public. The two conditions may be found together. A work of evil may be secretly undermining all that is of God while, at the same time, there may be a public display of the lawlessness of man.
(v. 1) The godly man appeals to the Lord, spreading out the evil of the times before the Lord. The soul is tried by the lack of the godly – those who fear God; and the faithful – those who can be relied on to maintain the truth among the people of God.
(vv. 2-5) The words of man betray their true character as marked by self-exaltation and self-will. They seek their own exaltation by flattering others, and boasting of themselves – speaking proud things. They express their self-will by refusing all authority: they say who is lord over us? As ever the man who is loudest in claiming liberty to speech and liberty of action for himself, is foremost in refusing liberty to others. He is the oppressor of the godly. Nevertheless the godly realize that the Lord will deal with the wicked and preserve the poor and needy.
(vv. 6-7) The words of the Lord. In contrast to the vain, flattering and boastful words of men, the godly have the pure words of the Lord in which there is no admixture of dross. Relying on these pure words the righteous are assured that they will be kept and preserved from this generation – those marked by the lawless spirit of the age – even though the wicked walk on every side in a day when godliness is at a discount and vileness is exalted (JND).
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
12:1 [To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David.] Help, LORD; for the {a} godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
(a) Who dare defend the truth and show mercy to the oppressed.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Psalms 12
David placed great confidence in the promises of God to deliver those who look to Him for salvation. This was not easy for the psalmist to do, since in his day powerful wicked people were taking advantage of the weak and vulnerable (cf. Psa 11:3). The genre of this psalm is probably a community lament with a statement of confidence in God.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. Plea for deliverance 12:1-4
The multitude of liars and deceivers that surrounded David moved him to cry out to God for deliverance for the godly minority.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
It seemed to David, as it did to Elijah years later, that the godly had almost become extinct in Israel (cf. Psa 11:2-3; 1Ki 19:10). Liars and double-minded flatterers had gradually replaced people who were true to their word and commitments. This is hyperbolic language, but David used it to remind God indirectly of His covenant promises to bless the godly. "Faithful" (Psa 12:1) is hasid that relates to hesed, which means loyal love or covenant loyalty.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 12:1-8
ONE penalty of living near God is keen pain from low lives. The ears that hear Gods word cannot but be stunned and hurt by the babble of empty speech. This psalm is profoundly melancholy, but without trace of personal affliction. The psalmist is not sad for himself, but sick of the clatter of godless tongues, in which he discerns the outcome of godless lives. His plaint wakes echoes in hearts touched by the love of God and the visions of mans true life. It passes through four clearly marked stages, each consisting of two verses: despondent contemplation of the flood of corrupt talk which seems to submerge all (Psa 12:1-2); a passionate prayer for Divine intervention, wrung from the psalmist by the miserable spectacle (Psa 12:3-4); the answer to that cry from the voice of God, with the rapturous response of the psalmist to it (Psa 12:5-6); and the confidence built on the Divine word, which rectifies the too despondent complaint at the beginning, but is still shaded by the facts which stare him in the face (Psa 12:7-8).
The cry for help (Save, LXX) 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. As he looks round he sees no exceptions to the prevailing evil. Like Elijah, he thinks that he is left alone, and love to God and men and reliableness and truth are vanished with their representatives. No doubt in all such despondent thoughts about the rarity of Christian charity and of transparent truthfulness there is an element of exaggeration, which in the present case is, as we shall see, corrected by the process of God-taught meditation. But the clearer the insight into what society should be, the sadder the estimate of what it is. Roseate pictures of it augur ill for the ideal which their painters have. It is better to be too sensitive to evils than to be contented with them. Unless the passionate conviction of the psalmist has burned itself into us, we shall but languidly work to set things right. Heroes and reformers have all begun with “exaggerated estimates” of corruption. The judgment formed of the moral state of this or of any generation depends on the clearness with which we grasp as a standard the ideal realised in Jesus Christ and on the closeness of our communion with God.
As in Psa 5:1-12, sins of speech are singled out, and of these “vanity” and “smooth lips with a heart and a heart” are taken as typical. As in Eph 4:25, the guilt of falsehood is deduced from the bond of neighbourliness, which it rends. The sin, to which a “high civilisation” is especially prone, of saying pleasant things without meaning them, seems to this moralist as grave as to most men it seems slight. Is the psalmist right or wrong in taking speech for an even more clear index of corruption than deeds? What would he have said if he had been among us, when the press has augmented the power of the tongue, and floods of “vanity,” not only in the form of actual lies, but of inane trivialities and nothings of personal gossip, are poured over the whole nation? Surely, if his canon is right, there is something rotten in the state of this land; and the Babel around may well make good men sad and wise men despondent.
Shall we venture to follow the psalmist in the second turn of his thoughts (Psa 12:3-4), where the verb at the beginning is best taken as an optative and rendered, “May Jehovah cut off”? The deepest meaning of his desire every true man will take for his own, namely the cessation of the sin; but the more we live in the spirit of Jesus the more we shall cherish the hope that that may be accomplished by winning the sinner. Better to have the tongue touched with a live coal from the altar than cut out. In the one case there is only a mute in the other an instrument for Gods praise. But the impatience of evil and the certainty that God can subdue it, which make the very nerve of the prayer, should belong to Christians yet more than to the psalmist. A new phase of sinful speech appears as provoking judgment even more than the former did. The combination of flattery and boastfulness is not rare, discordant as they seem; but the special description of the “proud things” spoken is that they are denials of responsibility to God or man for the use of lips and tongue. Insolence has gone far when it has formulated itself into definite statements. Twenty men will act on the principle for one who will put it into words. The conscious adoption and cynical avowal of it are a mark of defiance of God. “To our tongues we give strength”-an obscure expression which may be taken in various shades of meaning, e.g. as = We have power over, or = Through, or as to, our tongues we are strong, or = We will give effect to our words. Possibly it stands as the foundation of the daring defiance in the last clause of the verse, and asserts that the speaker is the author of his power of speech and therefore responsible to none for its use. “Our lips are with us” may be a further development of the same godless thought. “With us” is usually taken to mean “our allies,” or confederates, but signifies rather “in our possession, to do as we will with them.” “Who is lord over us?” There speaks godless insolence shaking off dependence, and asserting shamelessly licence of speech and life, unhindered by obligations to God and His law.
With dramatic swiftness the scene changes in the next pair of verses (Psa 12:5-6). That deep voice, which silences all the loud bluster, as the lions roar hushes the midnight cries of lesser creatures, speaks in the waiting soul of the psalmist. Like Hezekiah with Sennacheribs letter, he spreads before the Lord the “words with which they reproach Thee,” and, like Hezekiah. he has immediate answer. The inward assurance that God will arise is won by prayer at once, and changes the whole aspect of the facts which as yet remain unchanged. The situation does not seem so desperate when we know that God is moving. Whatever delay may intervene before the actual Divine act, there is none before the assurance of it calms the soul. Many wintry days may have to be faced, but a breath of spring has been in the air, and hope revives. The twofold reason which rouses the Divine activity is very strikingly put first in Psa 12:5. Not merely the “oppression or spoiling of the meek,” but that conjoined with the “sighing of the needy,” bring God into the field. Not affliction alone, but affliction which impels to prayer, moves Him to “stir up His strength.” “Now will I arise.” That solemn “now” marks the crisis, or turning point, when long forbearance ends and the crash of retribution begins. It is like the whirr of the clock that precedes the striking. The swiftly following blow will ring out the old evil. The purpose of Gods intervention is the safety of the afflicted who have sighed to Him; but while that is clear, the condensed language of Psa 12:5 is extremely obscure. The AV rendering, “I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him,” requires a too liberal use of supplemental words to eke out the sense; and the rendering of the R.V (margin), “the safety he panteth for,” is most congruous with the run of the sentence and of the thought. What has just been described as a sigh is now, with equal naturalness, figured as a pant of eager desire. The former is the expression of the weight of the affliction, the latter of yearning to escape from it. The latter is vain waste of breath unless accompanied with the former, which is also a prayer; but if so accompanied, the desire of the humble soul is the prophecy of its own fulfilment: and the measure of the Divine deliverance is regulated by His servants longing. He will always, sooner or later, get “the safety for which he pants.” Faith determines the extent of Gods gift.
The listening psalmist rapturously responds in Psa 12:6 to Gods great word. That word stands, with strong force of contrast, side by side with the arrogant chatter of irresponsible frivolity, and sounds majestic by the side of the shrill feebleness of the defiance. Now the psalmist lifts his voice in trustful acceptance of the oracle.
The general sense of Psa 12:6 is clear, and the metaphor which compares Gods words to refined silver is familiar, but the precise meaning of the words rendered “in a furnace on the earth” (R.V) is doubtful. The word for “furnace” occurs only here, and has consequently been explained in very different ways, is omitted altogether by the LXX, and supposed by, Cheyne to be a remnant of an ancient gloss. But the meaning of furnace or crucible is fairly made out and appropriate. But what does “tried in a furnace to the earth” mean? The “on the earth” of the R.V is scarcely in accordance with the use of the preposition “to,” and the best course is to adopt a supplement and read “tried in a furnace [and running down] to the earth.” The sparkling stream of molten silver as, free from dross, it runs from the melting pot to the mould on the ground, is a beautiful figure of the word of God, clear of all the impurities of mens words, which the psalm has been bewailing and raining down on the world. Gods words are a silver shower, precious and bright.
The last turn of the psalm builds hope on the pure words just heard from heaven. When God speaks a promise, faith repeats it as a certitude and prophesies in the line of the revelation. “Thou shalt” is mans answer to Gods “I will.” In the strength of the Divine word, the despondency of the opening strain is brightened. The godly and faithful shall not “cease from among the children of men,” since God will keep them; and His keeping shall preserve them. “This generation” describes a class rather than an epoch. It means the vain talkers who have been sketched in such dark colours in the earlier part of the psalm. These are “the children of men” among whom the meek and needy are to live, not failing before them because God holds them up. This hope is for the militant Church, whose lot is to stand for God amidst wide-flowing evil, which may swell and rage against the band of faithful ones, but cannot sweep them away. Not of victory which annihilates opposition, but of charmed lives invulnerable in conflict, is the psalmists confidence. There is no more lamenting of the extinction of good men and their goodness, neither is there triumphant anticipation of present extinction of bad men and their badness, but both are to grow together till the harvest.
But even the pure words which promise safety and wake the response of faith do not wholly scatter the clouds. The psalm recurs very pathetically at its close to the tone of its beginning. Notice the repetition of “the children of men” which links Psa 12:8 with Psa 12:1. If the fear that the. faithful should fail is soothed by Gods promise heard by the psalmist sounding in his soul, the hard fact of dominant evil is not altered thereby. That “vileness is set on high among the sons of men” is the description of a world fumed upside down. Beggars are on horseback and princes walking. The despicable is honoured, and corruption is a recommendation to high position. There have been such epochs of moral dissolution; and there is always a drift in that direction, which is only checked by the influence of the “faithful.” “If vileness is set on high among the sons of men,” it is because the sons of men prefer it to the stern purity of goodness. A corrupt people will crown corrupt men and put them aloft. The average goodness of the community is generally fairly represented by its heroes, rulers, and persons to whom influence is given; and when such topsy-turvydom as the rule of the worst is in fashion, “the wicked walk on every side.” Impunity breeds arrogance; and they swagger and swell, knowing that they are protected. Impunity multiplies the number; and on every side they swarm like vermin in a dirty house. But even when such an outlook saddens, the soul that has been in the secret place of the Most High and has heard the words of His mouth will not fall into pessimistic despondency, nor think that the faithful fail, because the wicked strut. When tempted to wail, “I, even I only, am left,” such a soul will listen to the still small voice that tells of seven thousands of Gods hidden ones, and will be of good cheer, as knowing that Gods men can never cease so long as God continues.