Day 25

Psalm 12: read here – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2012&version=NASB

—Three voices

The first voice is the writers: v1-3

The circumstances of this Psalm are unknown; it could have been during many different periods in David’s life, e.g. when he was in Saul’s court. David was a warrior; but we see here that he also had to deal with the battles of gossip and backbiting; of idle and deceptive talkers. David knew what it was like to feel all alone in this kind of battle, where it seemed that no one would speak up and defend him. Instead he took his case to the LORD.

V4 is the sinners voice – he utters 3 phrases with three mistakes.

Then the Lord speaks in v5. Notice the social justice tone of God’s utterance.

Finally, David speaks again v6-8

In contrast to the idle, two-faced, lying, and proud lips of David’s adversaries, God’s words are ‘purified silver’. The words of Yahweh are holy in his precepts, just in his laws, gracious in his promises, true in his narrations, and infallible in his predictions.

This means that the word of God can be trusted,  it still stands, despite millenniums of attack. Through the furnace of persecution, literary criticism, philosophic doubt, and scientific discovery, it has lost nothing but those human interpretations which clung to it as alloy to precious ore. Providence has preserved it through the centuries. The experience of God’s people has tried it in every conceivable manner, but not a single doctrine or promise has been consumed in the most excessive heat.

As pure silver enriches its owner, so does the Word of God enrich its lovers.

David knew that the existence and exaltation of God’s pure word would not eliminate the wicked. They would still exist and prowl on every side as they could, but never with the assurance of final victory.

In v8 we return to the fount of bitterness, which first made the Psalmist run to the wells of salvation, namely, the prevalence of wickedness. David was utterly realistic in his outlook. He knew that even with the precious and pure word of God available to men, many would still prefer that vileness be exalted.