Bird's-eye view
Psalm 12 is a lament over the corrosive power of deceitful speech in a decaying culture. David, surrounded by a generation where faithfulness has become a rarity, cries out to Yahweh for deliverance. The psalm starkly contrasts the lying, flattering, and arrogant words of men with the pure and trustworthy words of God. It is a prayer offered from the trenches, when it seems the godly have been all but extinguished and the wicked boast with impunity. David's plea is not one of despair, however, but is rooted in the conviction that God sees, God hears, and God will ultimately act to preserve His people and vindicate His own name against the proud tongues of men.
The first half of the psalm, which we consider here, sets the stage for this great contrast. It diagnoses the sickness of the society. The problem is not merely a few bad actors, but a systemic collapse of integrity. Faithfulness is gone, and what remains is a world of worthless chatter, flattering lips, and double hearts. This verbal anarchy is not directionless; it is aimed at autonomy from God. "Who is lord over us?" they ask. This is the ancient rebellion of Babel, repackaged for a new generation. David's response is not to form a committee or launch a campaign, but to appeal to the only one who can cut off the tongues of the proud and set the needy in safety.
Outline
- 1. A Plea from a Disappearing Remnant (Ps. 12:1)
- a. The Scarcity of the Holy (v. 1a)
- b. The Disappearance of the Faithful (v. 1b)
- 2. The Diagnosis of a Corrupt Culture (Ps. 12:2-4)
- a. The Reign of Worthless and Deceptive Speech (v. 2)
- b. A Prayer for Divine Judgment on Flattery (v. 3)
- c. The Arrogant Boast of Autonomy (v. 4)
Context In Psalms
This psalm is designated "According to the Sheminith," which likely refers to a musical setting, perhaps on an eight-stringed instrument or in a lower register. It places the psalm squarely within the context of Israel's corporate worship. This is not just a private journal entry from a discouraged king; it is a song for the covenant people to sing together when they find themselves in a similar cultural moment. It gives God's people a script for how to pray when it feels like the world is drowning in lies. The theme of deceitful speech and the cry for God's intervention is a common one in the Psalter, connecting it with psalms like 5, 10, and 52. It is a psalm for times of apostasy, when the visible church and the surrounding culture have made peace with falsehood.
Key Issues
- The Disappearance of the Godly
- The Nature of Flattering Lips and a Double Heart
- The Root of Arrogant Speech: Autonomy from God
- The Imprecatory Nature of the Prayer
Commentary
Save, O Yahweh, for the holy man ceases to be, For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. (v. 1)
David begins with a desperate, staccato cry for help: "Save, O Yahweh." This is the prayer of a man who sees the house is on fire. The reason for the emergency is a catastrophic shortage of godly men. The word for "holy man" here is hasid, which refers to one who is loyal to the covenant, one who is characterized by steadfast love (hesed) because he has received steadfast love from God. These are the pillars of a healthy society, the men of integrity, the ones you can count on. And David looks around and sees that they are gone. They have ceased to be. This is not just a lament that there are fewer of them; it is a cry that they are becoming extinct.
He repeats the thought for emphasis: "the faithful disappear." The word for faithful here (emunim) comes from the same root as "amen." These are the reliable ones, the true ones. And they are vanishing from among the sons of men. This is what a society looks like when it is coming apart at the seams. It is not primarily a failure of infrastructure or economics, but a failure of character. When a nation's supply of faithful men dries up, it is in mortal danger. David is not whining here; he is making a sober assessment of a spiritual famine. He sees the tide going out, and he cries out to the only one who can command the waves.
They speak worthlessness to one another; With a flattering lip and with a double heart they speak. (v. 2)
Having stated the problem, David now describes the primary symptom. What has replaced the conversation of the faithful? Worthless speech. The Hebrew word is shav, which means vanity, emptiness, a puff of smoke. Their talk is all fluff, all facade. It is the small talk of a society with nothing substantial to say because it has abandoned the God of substance. It is a world of chatter, gossip, and public relations spin.
And this worthless speech is delivered with a specific methodology: "with a flattering lip and with a double heart." Flattery is the art of saying to someone's face what you would never say behind their back, usually because you want something from them. It is the currency of a corrupt court and a hollow culture. It creates a world of illusions, where no one can be sure of where they stand. And it comes from a "double heart." Literally, a heart and a heart. This is a man who is not integrated. He has one heart for public display and another for his private schemes. He is trying to serve two masters, which means he is loyal to none. His words do not reflect a central, solid core of conviction, but rather shift and shimmer depending on his audience and his angle. This is the opposite of the faithful man, whose "yes" is "yes" and whose "no" is "no."
May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips, The tongue that speaks great things; (v. 3)
David's response to this crisis of speech is not to call for a dialogue or a civility campaign. His response is to pray an imprecation. He asks Yahweh to "cut off" all flattering lips. This is shocking to our modern, therapeutic sensibilities, but it is thoroughly biblical. David understands that certain kinds of speech are not neutral. They are toxic, destructive, and an offense to the God of truth. To pray for God to "cut off" such lips is to pray for the disease to be stopped. It is a prayer for divine surgery.
He is not just concerned with the smarmy, manipulative flattery of the courtier. He also targets "the tongue that speaks great things." This is the speech of arrogance, the boastful, self-important pronouncements of men who are impressed with themselves. This is the politician, the pundit, the celebrity academic who speaks as though he were an oracle, but whose words are untethered from the fear of God. Flattery and boasting are two sides of the same coin; both are forms of verbal manipulation rooted in pride. David prays for God to silence them both.
Who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” (v. 4)
Here David reveals the theological root of this corrupt speech. He quotes the proud, and their motto is one of radical autonomy. First, they believe in the power of their own rhetoric: "With our tongue we will prevail." They see language not as a tool for describing reality, but as a tool for creating it. For them, truth is a function of power and persuasion. If they can talk their way into it, it becomes true. This is the foundational lie of the sophist, the propagandist, and the modern deconstructionist.
Second, they claim absolute ownership of their words: "Our lips are our own." This is a declaration of independence from any external standard of truth or morality. They believe they have the right to say whatever they want, because their lips belong to them and no one else. This leads directly to their final, defiant question: "who is lord over us?" This is the core of the rebellion. They reject any notion of a higher authority to whom they must give an account. Their speech is lawless because they believe they are a law unto themselves. This is the spirit of antichrist, and it is the engine driving the cultural decay that David laments. His only hope, and ours, is that there is, in fact, a Lord over them, and that this Lord will answer the prayer of His people.