TAME THE TONGUE
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Opening Prayer
Thank you, Father, that I am free to worship you in spirit and truth, in any way or place I choose. Help me use my freedom also to tell others about Jesus.
Read PSALM 12
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Psalm 12
For the director of music. According to sheminith. A psalm of David.
1 Help, Lord, for no one is faithful anymore;
those who are loyal have vanished from the human race.
2 Everyone lies to their neighbor;
they flatter with their lips
but harbor deception in their hearts.
3 May the Lord silence all flattering lips
and every boastful tongue—
4 those who say,
“By our tongues we will prevail;
our own lips will defend us—who is lord over us?”
5 “Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan,
I will now arise,” says the Lord.
“I will protect them from those who malign them.”
6 And the words of the Lord are flawless,
like silver purified in a crucible,
like gold refined seven times.
7 You, Lord, will keep the needy safe
and will protect us forever from the wicked,
8 who freely strut about
when what is vile is honored by the human race.
Reflect
‘… those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary … walk and not be faint.’1
Today is Remembrance Sunday in the United Kingdom. It commemorates British and Commonwealth servicemen and servicewomen who served in both World Wars and later conflicts. Inevitably, I find myself reminded on this day of the horrific abuses of which humans are capable and of how much suffering is caused to the innocent.
Psalm 12 has similar concerns, but the psalmist’s particular anxiety is that society has become the province of the deceitful. Loyalty and faithfulness are redundant concepts (v. 1). ‘Everyone lies’ (v. 2). People engage in flattery, boasting, and deception (vv. 2, 3), and they disdain God (v. 4). The psalm repeats the words ‘lips’ and ‘tongue’ several times (vv. 2–4), conjuring up a grotesque visual image of this duplicitous society in which the poor and needy suffer (v. 5). Then, in a climactic central turning point, the Lord responds to the psalmist’s plea for help. He resolves to ‘arise’ and protect the poor and needy ‘from those who malign them’ (v. 5). By contrast with the liars’ ‘lips’ and ‘tongues,’ the psalmist talks of ‘the words’ of the Lord (v. 6), giving them comparative weight and substance. He emphasizes their purity and reliability: they are ‘flawless,’ like purified precious metals. The psalm ends with the observation that God’s intervention does not mean that the wicked completely disappear but that he will keep the needy safe and protect them (vv. 7, 8).
The picture the psalmist presents is exaggerated for poetic effect. Like many psalms, its aim is to draw a clear contrast between two philosophies—one in line with God’s purposes, the other not. It’s not difficult to see examples in our own world of the kind of ungodliness the psalm resents—but do we have faith to perceive and call upon the reliable words of God?
Apply
Reflect, for a moment, on aspects of the world that grieve you.
Closing prayer
Omniscient God, I lift up those suffering in war-torn countries to you, asking you to bring peace. Use your church to bring comfort and hope in Jesus’ name.
1 Is 40:31.
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