Psalm 12: The Double-Hearted Man
To the Chief Musician. On an eight-stringed harp. A Psalm of David.
1 Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. 2 They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. 3 May yahweh cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things, 4 who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own; who is lord over us?”
“‘Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth.’— This, according to the title, is one of David’s Psalms; but there is nothing in the circumstances, so far as we know them, of his history, which can lead us to associate the Psalm with any particular period.” (Biblical Illustrator)— though speculations abound. “‘Help, Lord’ - or, 'save.' The abrupt cry, without preface, implies the desperate urgency of the danger. The absence of the object (not Help me, but simply, ‘Help’) implies that the cry is not restricted to the Psalmist, but is common to all the godly left.— ‘For the godly man— literally, ‘the amen’ people— ceases…" (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown) “The defection which he deplores is a national defection. Like Elijah in the desert, he feels himself alone. A taint has spread through society. Falsehood is everywhere, truth nowhere. The heart of man is double; their lips are flattering lips... And whilst they utter slander, hypocrisy, and lies, they boast of their power; and not only give their tongues licence, but justify the licence: ‘Our lips are our own; who is Lord over us?’ Now this utter hollowness and insincerity are very hard to bear.“ (Biblical Illustrator)
Even the remnant of the Israel of God had “ceased to regulate their conduct one... by the law of kindness and truth. Compare the complaint of Elijah, 1 Kings 19:10; 1 Kings 19:14. — ‘disappear from among the sons of men.’ Literally ‘sons of Adam,’ a designation of an earthborn, degenerate race, as opposed to ‘sons of God.’” (Daniel Whedon) These professing believers, even Christians today, “‘speak vanity’— rather than the truth— ‘every one with his neighbour’—They speak falsely and fraudulently, and therein have an art, as Jeremiah 9:4-5, such as the devil hath taught them. ‘With flattering lips and a double heart do they speak’- Heb. ‘with a heart and a heart’.” (John Trapp) “‘A double-minded man’ [James 1:8] is one who has faith on the surface, but underneath lies unbelief. So 1 Chronicles 12:33, 'Ungodly professors have two hearts, two lords, two ends, two ways' (Cocceius).” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown)
This type of professor of the faith is unstable in all of his ways. He need to leave room for the Spirit to work in the heart of his opposition and to, meanwhile, bridle his tongues. “With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.” (James 3:9-10) David prays: “May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things, who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” They were in danger of coming up on the wrong side at the Great Judgment: “And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you, for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not your whole body go into hell [to perish].”
It is oft felt: “There never was a period of the Church, when this Psalm seemed to be more applicable. How few are there asking the way to Zion! How many the vacancies made by death in the congregations of the faithful! And who is there pleading, crying, wrestling with Zion's King in prayer, and determined to take no denial, that the Lord would fill those vacancies, and raise up a generation to call Him blessed? Alas, alas! may it not with too much truth be said, all seek their own, and not the things of Jesus Christ?” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)
5 “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now I will arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.” 6 The words of Yahweh are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. 7 You shall keep them, O Lord, You shall preserve them from this generation forever. 8 The wicked prowl on every side, when vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
“For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy," even the true church, "now I will arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.” You can bank on this! He will deliver His people— Israel. “‘The words of Yahweh are pure’ — without the least mixture of falsehood, and therefore shall be infallibly fulfilled… God’s Words are pure from all manner of dross; from all folly, or fraud, or uncertainty. ‘Often have they been put to the test, in the trials of the faithful, like silver committed to the furnace in an earthen crucible; but, like silver in its most refined and exalted purity, found to contain no dross. The Words of Jehovah are holy in His precepts, just in His laws, gracious in His promises, significant in His institutions, true in His narrations, and infallible in His predictions. What are thousands of gold and silver, compared to the treasures of the Sacred Page?' (Horne).” (Jos. Benson)
Lord Jesus— “You shall keep them (Your Words), O Lord, You shall preserve them (Your Words) from this generation forever. The wicked prowl on every side, when vileness is exalted among the sons of men.” Let it not be so among the sons of God. Jehovah keep us “in these coming dark days.” (Arno Gaebelein) “Fret not thyself then, oh my soul, when the vilest of men obtain promotion; for the Lord shall cast them down, and number them with the dust.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) According to Your Word, save us- pour out Your Spirit on all flesh.