Silver, Safety, and Strutting Wickedness Text: Psalm 12:6-8
Introduction: A Refuge of Pure Words
We live in a time of universal deceit. Our public discourse is a swamp of flattery, falsehood, and double-talk. Men say what they do not mean, and they mean what they do not say. The very words we use have been untethered from reality, sent drifting into a sea of subjective nonsense. This is not an accident. When a generation abandons God, their first casualty is language. They must corrupt the dictionary because they cannot abide by the definitions God has given. They call evil good and good evil; they put darkness for light and light for darkness. This psalm, from beginning to end, is a cry for help from a man drowning in this kind of verbal pollution.
The psalmist begins by lamenting that the godly man has ceased, that the faithful have failed from among the children of men. Everyone speaks vanity to his neighbor, with flattering lips and a double heart. They are arrogant, believing their tongues are their own, and that no one is lord over them. But in the middle of this cesspool of deceit, God makes a promise. He promises to arise for the sake of the oppressed and the needy. And it is this divine promise that provides the pivot for the entire psalm.
How can we trust this promise when all human promises have proven to be worthless? How can we find solid ground when the whole world seems to be made of semantic quicksand? David's answer is found in our text. He contrasts the corrupt, inflated, and treacherous words of men with the incorruptible, weighty, and trustworthy Word of God. In a world of lies, the only refuge is a Word that cannot lie. In an age of filth, the only cleansing agent is a Word that is utterly pure. This is not just a comfort; it is our only hope. Without a trustworthy Word from God, we are left to the tender mercies of the wicked, which are no mercies at all.
The Text
The words of Yahweh are pure words;
As silver tried in a furnace on the ground, refined seven times.
You, O Yahweh, will keep them;
You will guard him from this generation forever.
The wicked strut about on every side
When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
(Psalm 12:6-8 LSB)
God's Incorruptible Currency (v. 6)
We begin with the magnificent contrast David draws in verse 6.
"The words of Yahweh are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the ground, refined seven times." (Psalm 12:6)
After swimming in the sewer of human speech described in the first part of the psalm, this verse is like a breath of clean, mountain air. The words of men are polluted, deceptive, and self-serving. But the words of Yahweh are pure. The Hebrew word for pure here means clean, unadulterated. There is no mixture, no dross, no hidden agenda, no fine print. God's Word is not 99 percent pure; it is absolutely pure.
To make the point, David uses a powerful metaphor from metallurgy. God's words are like silver that has been subjected to the most intense refining process imaginable. It is tried in a furnace, on the ground, suggesting a process that is earthy, real, and thorough. And it is refined "seven times." In Scripture, the number seven signifies perfection and completeness. This is not literal metallurgy, as though six times would have left some impurity. This is Hebrew poetry making a theological point with sledgehammer force: God's Word is perfectly, completely, and utterly pure. You cannot improve upon it. You cannot make it more true. It is the final standard of truth itself.
This has massive implications for us. First, it means that Scripture is inerrant. It is without error in everything it affirms, from the grand doctrines of salvation to the details of history and science. To suggest that the Bible contains errors is to say that the silver is not fully refined, that God's speech is tainted with dross. But David says it is purified seven times. This is the foundation of our confidence. We do not have a "mostly true" book; we have the very words of God, and they are flawless (Prov. 30:5).
Second, because God's Word is pure, it is powerful. It is the creative agent that brought the world into being (Gen. 1). It is the regenerating agent that brings dead sinners to life (1 Pet. 1:23). It is the sanctifying agent that cleanses the believer (John 17:17). A polluted word has no power, but a pure word has all the power of the one who spoke it. When we stand on the promises of God, we are standing on something more solid than the ground beneath our feet.
Divine Preservation (v. 7)
Because God's words are pure, He is personally invested in their preservation. This is what verse 7 tells us.
"You, O Yahweh, will keep them; You will guard him from this generation forever." (Psalm 12:7 LSB)
Now, there is a textual issue here that we must address straightforwardly. Who is the "them" that Yahweh will keep? And who is the "him" He will guard? Many modern translations, following certain grammatical arguments, render this as God preserving the poor and needy mentioned in verse 5. And it is certainly true that God preserves His people. That is a glorious biblical truth (Ps. 37:28).
However, the context here is a stark contrast between the words of men and the words of God. The immediate antecedent to "them" in verse 7 is the "pure words" of verse 6. It makes perfect sense in the flow of the argument: God's words are pure, and therefore God Himself will keep them. He will guard His own speech. And by guarding His Word, He guards His people. Our safety is bound up in the integrity of His promises. If God preserves His Word, then He preserves the "him" who trusts in that Word. The two are inextricably linked. Our security comes from the certainty of God's words.
God guards His Word and His people "from this generation forever." What is "this generation"? It is the generation described in the psalm, the one characterized by flattery, pride, and deceit. It is every generation that sets itself against the Lord and His anointed. It is our generation. The promise is that God's truth and God's people will outlast every crooked and perverse generation. Empires will rise and fall, philosophies will come and go, cultural trends will crest and break, but the Word of God and the people of God will endure forever. This is not because we are so strong, but because He is so faithful to His pure Word.
The Culture of Vileness (v. 8)
The psalm concludes with a grim but realistic assessment of the world in which we live, the world from which God preserves us.
"The wicked strut about on every side When vileness is exalted among the sons of men." (Psalm 12:8 LSB)
This is a sociological observation with profound spiritual import. What happens when a society begins to honor what is shameful? What is the result when vileness is "exalted"? The consequence is that the wicked "strut about on every side." They walk with their chests puffed out. They become bold, arrogant, and ubiquitous. They are no longer hiding in the shadows; they are marching in the streets and sitting in the high places.
The word for "vileness" here refers to what is worthless, cheap, or contemptible. It is the dross that is left over after the silver is refined. When a culture inverts God's standards, it begins to celebrate what God despises. It makes heroes out of deviants, celebrates perversion as a virtue, and honors rebellion as a mark of enlightenment. When this happens, the wicked feel vindicated. They feel empowered. The inmates are running the asylum, and they strut.
We are living in such a time. We see vileness exalted on our television screens, in our universities, in our halls of government. We see the celebration of sexual confusion, the murder of the unborn treated as a right, and the mockery of God's law as a sign of sophistication. And as a direct result, the wicked are emboldened. They strut. They are not ashamed of their sin; they glory in it. They demand not just tolerance, but celebration. And they persecute anyone who refuses to bow the knee.
This verse is a warning, but it is also a comfort. It tells us that the chaos we see is not random. It is the predictable consequence of a society that has rejected the pure words of God. It reminds us why we need a refuge. The world is not a safe place for the righteous. But our safety is not in the world. Our safety is in the God who keeps His people by keeping His Word.
Our Refuge in the Truth
So how do we live in a generation like this? We live by clinging to the contrast at the heart of this psalm. The world offers us the flattering, polluted, and worthless words of men. God offers us His pure, refined, and precious Word.
When the wicked strut, when vileness is exalted, we must not be intimidated. We must not despair. Their strutting is the strutting of men on death row who do not yet know their sentence has been passed. Their exaltation of vileness is a temporary insanity that will be shattered by the return of the King. Their words are chaff, destined for the fire.
Our task is to immerse ourselves in the pure words of Yahweh. We must read them, study them, memorize them, sing them, and pray them. We must build our lives, our families, and our churches on this solid rock. The furnace of this wicked generation will test everything. Only what is built on the refined silver of God's Word will stand.
The ultimate expression of God's pure Word is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is the Word made flesh (John 1:14). He is the one who was tested in the furnace of God's wrath on the cross, and He emerged perfectly righteous, our silver redeemer. In Him, all the promises of God are "Yes" and "Amen" (2 Cor. 1:20). When God promises to guard the one who trusts in Him, He is promising to guard the one who is hidden in Christ.
Therefore, let the wicked strut. Let them have their moment. We have something infinitely better. We have the pure words of life, and we have the promise of the one who spoke them that He will keep us, guard us, and preserve us from this generation, and for all eternity.