Help, O Lord. No godly person is left. Faithful people have vanished from among Adam’s descendants! All people speak foolishly. They speak with flattering lips. They say one thing but mean another.
May the Lord cut off every flattering lip and every bragging tongue that has said, “We will overcome with our tongues. With lips such as ours, who can be our master?”
Because oppressed people and needy people groan, “I will now arise,” says the Lord. “I will provide safety for those who long for it.”
The promises of the Lord are pure, like silver refined in a furnace and purified seven times. O Lord, You will protect them. You will keep each one safe from those people forever. Wicked people parade around when immorality increases among Adam’s descendants.
I was reading Psalm 12 this morning, and wondering about the attitude of those who say the Bible is meaningless, and written by man. This Psalm, indeed written by the man, King David, and so important and meaningful to him that he had it set to music, could be written to the people of our times. I wondered why he zoned in on the “lying tongues” of those around him. History repeats itself yet we do not seem to learn from the mistakes of the past. Look around and see if what David recognised around him is not around us today. People boast about their abilities to over-ride Truth and Honesty. Looking at the cycle of God’s promises being fulfilled, and people’s’ continued rebellion through the ages, I have no doubt that to-days culprits will also be found wanting.
In verse 6 we are told that the promises of the Lord are pure, like silver refined in a furnace and purified seven times. What does that mean to us?
In the days from Adam to Abraham silver had become the chosen substance for monetary purposes, jewellery, decoration and implements. Mined more easily but less valuable than gold, the process of refining it required master craftsmen, and to compare it to the purity of the promises of the Lord was extremely meaningful to the people of David’s day.
What are those promises regarding lying tongues? Most people prefer not to think of the wrath of God and even Christians tend to hope that it is not applicable to them, and is an attitude of the past, before Christ’s saving payment. Yet the Scriptures show that God has made no attempt to conceal that part of His character. He makes it known that vengeance and fury are His prerogative.
Proverbs 6:16-19
There are six things the Lord hates:
Haughty eyes
A lying tongue
Hands that shed innocent blood
Feet that are quick to rush into evil
A false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
Proverbs 19:5 & 9
A false witness will not go unpunished, and he whom pours out lies will not go free.
A W Pink (1865-1952, a student of the attributes of God and an evangelist), wrote: The wrath of God is an attribute of God as much a part of God as any other attribute, an attribute without which God would be less than God:
Now the wrath of God is as much a Divine perfection as is His faithfulness, power, or mercy. It must be so, for there is no blemish whatever, not the slightest defect in the character of God; yet there would be if ‘wrath’ were absent from Him!
He defines wrath as follows:
The wrath of God is His eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the displeasure and indignation of Divine equity against evil. It is the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin. It is the moving cause of that just sentence which He passes upon evil-doers. God is angry against sin because it is a rebelling against His authority, a wrong done to His inviolable sovereignty. Insurrectionists against God’s government shall be made to know that God is the Lord. They shall be made to feel how great that Majesty is which they despise, and how dreadful is that threatened wrath which they so little regarded. Not that God’s anger is a malignant and malicious retaliation, inflicting injury for the sake of it, or in return for injury received. No; while God will vindicate His dominion as Governor of the universe, He will not be vindictive.
Yes, this was written by man, but expounds on the written Word of God, through His servants. I would rather not play around it! I think the dishonesty and hypocrisy of mankind today will indeed be visited by the wrath of God; mankind needs to beware. A short reading this morning has led me on a journey of discovery which I trust will challenge every reader.
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