Do you ever pay attention to the news and politics in your nation or state and wonder if everyone is crazy?
David wrote Psalm 12 as a community lament about 3,000 years ago and it feels like it could have been written today. The psalm is a way for the community to complain to God about how it seems that liars dominate society and run things. Read it and you'll see what I mean.
"Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone;
for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue that makes great boasts,
those who say, 'With our tongue we will prevail,
our lips are with us; who is master over us?'
'Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,
I will now arise,' says the LORD;
'I will place him in the safety for which he longs.'
The words of the LORD are pure words,'like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.
You, O LORD, will keep them;
you will guard us from this generation forever.
On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among the children of man." Psalm 12
Do you feel like David felt while writing this psalm? Does it feel like everyone is a liar? Do you examine politics or the culture and conclude the place where you live is run by boastful, lying, God-ignoring men and women?
David taught the people singing this psalm to see this injustice and to ask God to do something about it. He taught God-honoring complaining versus God-dishonoring complaining. He instructs us on how to ask God to work, even violently, to make things right and good. David goes even further and shows us how we can and should trust that God will rise up and make things right. David implores us to sing with confidence that while all men may be liars, God will not lie. In sharp contrast to the words of these men, God's words are pure and trustworthy.
Before we leave this eternally timely psalm, let's look at what the turning point of the psalm is. What it is that arouses God to enact justice.
"'Because the poor are plunder, because the needy groan, I will now arise,' says the LORD. 'I will place him in the safety for which he longs." v. 5
I have been reading the psalms daily during this year. You cannot soak in the psalms and not see that God is for the poor and needy and the outcasts. God is for these people and the wicked prowl around and look to devour them just like the Devil does (Psalm 12:8; 1 Peter 5:8).
Do you see this in our culture and nation and world? Do you see that "vileness is exalted among the children of man"?
We see things that exploit our young men, like the sports gambling industry, being labeled good, clean fun. The murder of the unborn is called healthcare. The lottery is said to be a fundraiser for schools and an opportunity for riches while it is actually a heavy tax on the poorest among us.
Christians, are we involved in exploitative endeavors or industries? Do we prop up the things that wickedly plunder the poor and cause the needy to groan?
Even the things that are mostly good must be done in a Christian fashion. For example, we see from Psalm 10 and 12 that capitalism without a morality, and I'll argue at the very least a Judeo-Christian influenced morality, will end in gross injustice because of our own wicked bend. That isn't an argument necessarily to get rid of it but to have all of our lives, even and perhaps especially our economic lives, dripping with Gospel morality.
Don't lie for ill-gotten gain or lie to yourself in order to ignore the vileness you end up promoting.
Will you be the one who laments and calls out to God for your nation/culture or will you be a participant and promoter of the vileness that God says arouses Him to righteous anger? Read Psalm 12 and pray for God to make things right and good again today.
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