Psalm 12 | A psalm of David.
Deliver, Lord!
For the godly have disappeared;
people of integrity have vanished.
2 People lie to one another;
they flatter and deceive.3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
and the tongue that boasts!4 They say, “We speak persuasively;
we know how to flatter and boast.
Who is our master?”5 “Because of the violence done to the oppressed,
because of the painful cries of the needy,
I will spring into action,” says the Lord.
“I will provide the safety they so desperately desire.”6 The Lord’s words are absolutely reliable.
They are as untainted as silver purified in a furnace on the ground,
where it is thoroughly refined.7 You, Lord, will protect the oppressed;
you will continually shelter each one from these evil people,8 for the wicked seem to be everywhere,
when people promote evil.
Psalm 12 highlights the reliability of God's word in comparison to human speech.
The "empty words" of humanity (lies, flattery, pride) contrast with the pure words of God, which are refined like silver (v6).
We need to read whole passages to understand the full context rather than isolated verses, or misread verses, especially in a time that is marked by leaders that lie.
To put it another way, Psalm 12 is a lament against the misuse of language and a plea for divine intervention against deceitful, powerful voices that oppress the vulnerable.
This is a psalm that addresses a crisis of truth, where the "godly" disappear and the poor are plundered by the lies of the powerful. It is a cry of God's intervention to protect those who are victims of malicious speech.
In a sense, none of this is surprising, we, as Christians, are to live as dissidents in a "Babylonian" culture. We are called to reject the deceptive narratives of the world/empire and trust in God's truthful words.
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