Psalms 12:1 - Meaning and Application

This psalm gives us good thoughts for bad times. Even when sensible people stay quiet, because a word can make a man seem guilty (Amo 5:13), we can still comfort ourselves with fitting prayers and reflections like these.

First, let us see what makes the times truly bad. People in the world often say hard times mean less money, falling trade, or war. But Scripture points to a different cause. It says perilous times will come because sin will increase (Ti2 3:1), and that is what David is complaining about here.

The times are bad when godliness and honesty are disappearing among people (Psa 12:1). Notice how the psalm joins these two ideas, the godly and the faithful. There is no real faith in God without honesty toward people. Godly people are faithful people, sometimes called trustworthy people, because their word is as solid as their oath. They take seriously being true both to God and to others.

They are said to cease and fail, either because they die or because they give up, or both. Those who were once godly and faithful are taken away, and those left behind have badly changed, so there are few real Israelites indeed to be found. David may have meant that there were no godly and faithful men among Saul’s court officials. If he meant that few or none were left in Israel, then he was probably mistaken in the same way Elijah was, when he thought he was the only one left, though God had 7,000 who had kept their integrity (Rom 11:3). Or he may have meant there were few compared with the number that should have been there. In any case, a general decline in religion and virtue makes the times very bad, when no one can be found who does what is right (Jer 5:1).

The times are also very bad when lies, flattery, and false manners spoil all conversation (Psa 12:2). Then people do not care about truth. They are so malicious that they plan harm against their neighbors, yet so base that they hide it under fine words and friendly acts. They speak falsehood to one another, with flattering lips and a double heart. They will kiss and kill, as Joab did to Abner and Amasa in David’s own time. They smile in your face and stab you in the back. This is the devil’s image in full, a mix of hatred and falsehood.

The times are bad indeed when sincerity cannot be found, and an honest man does not know whom to trust. He dares not put confidence even in a friend or guide (Mic 7:5, Mic 7:6; Jer 9:4, Jer 9:5). Woe to those who help make the times this dangerous.

The times are also very bad when enemies of God, religion, and godly people become bold and shameless, and threaten to sweep away everything holy and right. Proud sinners reach the point of saying, “With our tongue we will win the case. Our lips are our own, and we may say whatever we want. Who is lord over us?” (Psa 12:4). This shows a proud trust in themselves, as if they had become like gods after eating forbidden fruit, able to decide good and evil for themselves. It also shows open contempt for God’s rule, as if he had no claim on them. But the claim is not theirs to deny. Who made a man’s mouth, and whose hand holds his breath?

It is just as unreasonable to say, “Who is lord over us?” as Pharaoh did, when he refused to listen to God’s command (Exo 5:1). The God in whom we live and move and have our being must surely be Lord over us.

The times are very bad when the poor and needy are crushed and mocked. That is implied in (Psa 12:5), where God notices the oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy. They are wronged because they are poor. People hurt them simply because they cannot defend themselves. They often dare not speak for fear that their defense will be turned against them, so they sigh and pour out their grief before God. If someone speaks for them, their oppressors puff at them, treating their suffering lightly and not taking it seriously (Psa 10:5).

The times are also very bad when wickedness goes openly unchecked under the support of those in authority (Psa 12:8). When the worst people are raised to places of trust and power, and instead of punishing evil they protect it, then wicked people spread everywhere. They are not afraid or ashamed to show who they are. They declare their sin openly, like Sodom, and no one stops them. Wicked people are base people, no matter how high they rise in this world. Antiochus the illustrious is called a vile person in Scripture (Dan 11:21). A kingdom is in a sad state when such people are preferred, and then it is no surprise if wickedness grows bold and pushy. When the wicked rule, the people mourn.

Now let us see what comfort this psalm gives us for such bad times. We do not know what times we may yet live through, so it is good to be prepared. When things are this bad, it is comforting to remember that we have a God to go to, one from whom we may ask and expect help for all our troubles. David begins with this cry: “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases” (Psa 12:1). When all other help fails, and even godly, faithful people are gone, who should we turn to but God?

When godly and faithful people disappear, it is time to cry, “Help, Lord!” When sin keeps increasing, it threatens to flood everything. Then we should pray, “Help, Lord, help the virtuous. Few are trying to hold on to their integrity and stand in the gap. Help preserve your own cause in the world from sinking. It is time for you, Lord, to act.”

We should also remember that God will surely deal with false and proud people, and he will restrain and punish their insolence. They may be beyond human control and may openly defy everyone, but they are not beyond God’s reach.

People cannot always see through flatterers or bring down the pride of those who speak proud things. But the righteous God will cut off all flattering lips, the lips that give the traitor’s kiss and speak smoother words than oil while war is in the heart, and he will silence the tongue that speaks proudly against God and religion (Psalm 12:3). Some take this as a prayer: “May God cut off those false and spiteful lips. Let lying lips be silenced.”

God will also, in his own time, deliver his oppressed people and shelter them from the evil plans of their persecutors (Psalm 12:5). “Now I will arise,” says the Lord. This promise, which David speaks here by the Spirit of prophecy, answers the prayer he offered to God by the spirit of prayer. David says, “Help, Lord,” and God answers, “I will, I am here, with timely and effective help.”

That help comes at the right time. First, it comes when oppressors are at the height of their pride and arrogance, when they say, “Who is lord over us?” Then it is God’s time to show them, to their cost, that he is above them. Second, it comes when the oppressed are at the deepest point of trouble and despair, sighing like Israel in Egypt under cruel slavery. Then God’s time has come to appear for them, as he did for Israel when they were most crushed and Pharaoh was most powerful. “Now will I arise.” There is a fixed time for the rescue of oppressed innocence, and that time will come. We can be sure it is the best time (Psalm 102:13).

This help is not only timely, it is effective. “I will set him in safety,” or “in salvation.” God will not only protect his people, he will restore them to their former prosperity and bring them out into a wide and prosperous place (Psalm 66:12). In the end, they will not lose anything by their suffering.

Men are false, but God is faithful. People cannot be fully trusted, but God can. They speak emptiness and flattery, but the words of the Lord are pure words (Psalm 12:6). They are not only true, they are also pure, like silver tested in a furnace and refined again and again. This means, first, that God’s word is sincere. Everything is really what it claims to be, and nothing more or less. It does not mock us, trick us, or aim at anything except our good.

It also means God’s word is precious. It has great worth in itself, like silver refined to its highest purity. Nothing in it lowers its value. And it also means God’s word has often been proven true. The saints of every age have trusted it and tested it, and it never deceived them or failed their hope. They all could say that God’s word is true. Trust one who has tried it and found it so.

This promise likely points especially to God’s promise to help and relieve the poor and oppressed. Human friends may raise hopes and then fail like a broken reed. But God’s words are what we can depend on. Since we must be cautious about people’s promises, we should trust God’s promise all the more.

God will also keep his chosen remnant for himself, no matter how bad the times are (Psalm 12:7). “You shall preserve them from this generation forever.” This shows that, as long as the world lasts, there will always be proud and wicked people who try, by their evil tricks, to ruin religion and wear down the saints of the Most High (Daniel 7:25). But let God care for his own cause and preserve his own people.

He will keep them from this generation in two ways. He will keep them from being corrupted by it and drawn away from God, from joining in its ways and learning its works. In times of widespread turning away from God, the Lord knows those who belong to him, and they will be able to remain faithful. He will also keep them from being destroyed and wiped out by it. The church is built on a rock, and it is so well defended that the gates of hell will not defeat it.

Even in the worst times, God has his remnant. In every age, he will keep for himself a holy seed and preserve it for his heavenly kingdom. As we sing this psalm and pray it back to God, we should grieve over the general corruption of manners, thank God that things are not worse, and pray and hope that they will be better in God’s own time.