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Psalm 12

Plea for Help in Evil Times

To the leader: according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.

Help, O L ord, for there is no longer anyone who is godly;

the faithful have disappeared from humankind.

They utter lies to each other;

with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

May the L ord cut off all flattering lips,

the tongue that makes great boasts,

those who say, “With our tongues we will prevail;

our lips are our own—who is our master?”

“Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan,

I will now rise up,” says the L ord;

“I will place them in the safety for which they long.”

The promises of the L ord are promises that are pure,

silver refined in a furnace on the ground,

purified seven times.

You, O L ord, will protect us;

you will guard us from this generation forever.

On every side the wicked prowl,

as vileness is exalted among humankind.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This the Psalmist confirms more fully in the following verse: Who have said, we will be strengthened by our tongues Those must be possessed of great authority who think that, in the very falsehood to which they are addicted, they have enough of strength to accomplish their purposes, and to protect themselves. It is the utmost height of wickedness for persons to break out into such presumption, that they scruple not to overthrow all law and equity by their arrogant and boasting language; for, in doing this, it is just as if they openly declared war against God himself. Some read, we will strengthen our tongues. This reading is passable, in so far as the sense is concerned, but it scarcely agrees with the rules of grammar, because the letter ל, lamed, is added. Moreover, the sense which is more suitable is this: that the wicked persons spoken of being armed with their tongues, go beyond all bounds, and think they can accomplish by this means whatever they please; just as this set of men so deform every thing with their calumnies, that they would almost cover the sun himself with darkness.