Commentary - Psalm 12:5

Bird's-eye view

Psalm 12 is a lament over the decay of faithfulness and the rise of deceptive, flattering speech in the land. David finds himself in a generation where godly men are disappearing and everyone speaks falsehood to his neighbor. The psalm contrasts the lying lips of proud men with the pure words of Yahweh. The central pivot of the entire psalm is verse 5, where God Himself breaks into the cesspool of human deceit with a solemn, divine promise. He sees the oppression of the weak, He hears their groans, and He declares His intention to act. This is not just a general statement of God's character; it is a dramatic, first-person intervention. The remainder of the psalm flows from this divine speech, contrasting the worthless words of men with the flawless, seven-times-refined words of God, and concluding with a renewed confidence in God's preservation of His people, even while the wicked continue to prowl.

This verse, therefore, is the turning point from lament to trust. It is the moment when the psalmist's complaint is met by a divine declaration. God's action is rooted in His compassion for the vulnerable and His justice against their oppressors. The "safety" He promises is not merely a cessation of trouble, but a positive placement in a secure position, a theme that finds its ultimate fulfillment in the salvation offered through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the final and perfect Word of God in a world of lies.

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 12 is one of the Davidic psalms of lament. It sits in the first book of the Psalter, which is dominated by David's personal cries to God in the midst of turmoil and opposition. This psalm is unique in its focus on the sin of the tongue. It follows psalms that deal with overt enemies and threats, but here the danger is more subtle and pervasive: a culture of flattery, double-mindedness, and proud boasting. The psalmist feels isolated, as though the faithful are a vanishing breed (v. 1). In this context, verse 5 is a blast of fresh air from heaven. The problem is a world polluted by corrupt speech, and the solution is a direct, unpolluted, and powerful word from God Himself. This sets up the glorious contrast in the next verses between human words (hot air, lies) and the words of Yahweh, which are like silver refined in a furnace seven times over (v. 6). The divine speech of verse 5 is the anchor for the believer's hope in a world drowning in deceit.

Key Issues

God's Answer to the Groans

We live in a world of words. And because we are fallen, we live in a world of lies. The background to this psalm is a society where truth has fallen in the streets, and the man who speaks plainly is a prey. The powerful use words to flatter, to deceive, and to boast, creating a social environment that is suffocating for the righteous. The psalmist cries out to God, and what he receives in return is not a change in his circumstances, not immediately, but rather a Word from God. This is foundational. Before God acts, He speaks. And His speaking is a form of acting.

The intervention here is a direct quote from the Almighty. This is God, in the first person, responding to the crisis. He does not send an angel, He does not inspire a prophet to paraphrase His feelings. The text says, "Now I will arise, says Yahweh." This is a divine oath, a unilateral declaration of intent. And notice what moves Him. It is not the clever arguments of the psalmist, but rather the raw misery of the oppressed. It is the "devastation of the afflicted" and the "groaning of the needy." God's heart is tuned to the frequency of suffering. Our world may be filled with the loud, proud boasts of wicked men, but the sound that pierces the heavens and moves the sovereign of the universe to act is the sigh of a poor man.

Verse by Verse Commentary

5 “Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in the safety for which he longs.”

Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy... God begins His own speech by stating His reasons. Divine action is never arbitrary. The two phrases are parallel and reinforcing. The first speaks to an objective condition: the afflicted are being plundered, stripped, devastated. The second speaks to the subjective response: the needy are groaning, sighing. God sees both the outward injustice and the inward anguish. He is not a distant deist who is unmoved by the plight of His people. He is the covenant God who binds Himself to the lowly. The groaning of the needy is not just noise to Him; it is an argument. It is the sound that triggers the tripwire of His covenant promises.

Now I will arise... This is a classic biblical anthropomorphism. God does not have a body; He does not literally sit or stand. To "arise" is to move from a posture of apparent rest or patience into one of direct, decisive action. It is the language of the courtroom and the battlefield. A judge arises to pronounce sentence. A king arises to lead his armies. For generations, God had seemed patient with the proud talkers, but their oppression has reached a tipping point. The word "Now" is emphatic. The time for waiting is over; the time for judgment and salvation has come. This is the great terror of the wicked and the great comfort of the righteous. The God who seems to be sitting is, at the appointed time, a God who will arise.

says Yahweh... This phrase anchors the preceding declaration in the unimpeachable authority of God Himself. This is not the psalmist's wishful thinking. This is not a human prediction. The covenant name of God, Yahweh, is attached to this promise. He is the self-existent, promise-keeping God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When He speaks, worlds come into being. When He makes a promise, it is more certain than the rising of the sun. In a psalm about the unreliability of human words, this interjection is crucial. Men lie. Yahweh does not.

I will set him in the safety for which he longs. Here is the substance of the promise. The action God will take is a placement. He will take "him", the afflicted, needy individual, and put him somewhere. Where? In "safety." The Hebrew word is yesha, which is the root for the name Joshua, and Jesus. It means salvation, deliverance, security. God is going to place the afflicted man into the fortress of His salvation. And notice the beautiful correspondence: this is the very safety "for which he longs." The longing of the oppressed and the provision of God are a perfect match. God does not give us what we think we need, or what the world says we should want. He gives the very thing our soul, in its deepest distress, pants for. He answers the groan with the gospel. This safety is ultimately found not in a change of earthly circumstances, but in being placed "in Christ," our refuge and strong tower.

Application

This verse is a rock for the believer in a world of sinking sand. We are surrounded, just as David was, by proud, deceptive, and manipulative words. We hear them from politicians, from advertisers, from influencers, and sometimes, tragically, from the pulpits of compromised churches. It is easy to become cynical and to feel that the faithful are a dying breed. This psalm gives us permission to lament that reality, to bring that complaint honestly before God.

But it does not leave us there. The central application is to learn to listen for God's Word in the middle of the noise. Our hope is not in out-arguing the liars or in mustering enough political force to silence them. Our hope is that God hears the groans of His people and that He has promised to arise. We must build our lives on what "Yahweh says," not on what the talking heads of the age are saying. The words of men are chaff; the Word of the Lord is pure, refined silver.

Furthermore, this verse should shape the character of our churches. If God's heart is moved by the devastation of the afflicted, then the hearts of His people ought to be as well. A church that is deaf to the groaning of the needy in its midst is a church whose ears are stopped up with the wax of worldliness. We are called to be a people who not only trust in God's promise of safety but who also act as agents of that safety, defending the weak, speaking truth against lies, and creating communities where the afflicted can find refuge. For we worship the God who did not remain seated in heaven, but who arose and came down in the person of Jesus Christ, the ultimate answer to the groaning of all creation.