Or, Who to Listen to When Everyone Else Is Lying
Scripture: Psalm 12:1-8
Date: November 16, 2014
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Until the serpent spoke in the Garden, every word spoken that we know about was true. God spoke creation into reality, and it was all very good. God gave Adam and Eve a commission and a prohibition, both of which were for their benefit. We can expect that Adam and Eve also talked with one another about their relationship, about their task, and about their God. For a brief time there was no miscommunication, no deception, no hurt caused by words.
Then satan twisted what was straight. He fiddled with God’s word by suggesting to Eve that God was keeping back something good from her. He convinced her with his killer lies, and his offspring have been destroying others with words just like their father ever since.
We see it. We are surrounded by half-truths and half-wits which results in total confusion. Who tells the truth? Who can be trusted? Politicians? Advertisers? Educators? Scientists? Journalists? Pastors? Neighbors? The wind blows with falsehood, white lies, lies of omission, obfuscation, misdirection, and promises made with fingers crossed behind the back.
David experienced the same sort of tongue wangling in his day and wrote a song (or three) about it. Psalm 12 is a lament and prayer for the LORD to shut the mouths of flatterers, a personal concern about a public breakdown: “everyone utters lies to his neighbor”; the trouble is with an entire “generation” and the “wicked prowl on every side.” Society was not only vile, society “exalted” vileness.
What did David do? He wrote a poem to be sung (another song For the musical director, this one to be tuned to the octave, according to The Sheminith), a poem that contrasted the flattering words of liars with the faithful words of the LORD. David didn’t embrace silence as the solution. He listened to God who never lies (see Titus 1:2). He believed God’s promise that he would ultimately have a future without flattery.
Surrounded by lies David feels lonely.
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.
(Psalm 12:1–2)
The song starts with an appeal for salvation: Save, O LORD. David immediately asks, hosiah, “Help!” or “Deliver!” or perhaps better, “Vindicate!” The remainder of verses 1 and 2 explain why he needs help.
He needs help for the godly one is gone. The godly one (ḥaseid) is the one who lives according to God’s ways, especially one who shows covenant loyalty (ḥesed) like God. But he can’t be found for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. The faithful or the “trustworthy” are missing. The word vanished (used only here in the Old Testament) means “come to an end”; they’ve disappeared. It appears to David that he may be the only one left in Israel, maybe in the whole world, who still cares about honesty.
His greatest burden in Psalm 12 comes from how men treat each other in talk. In previous songs men attacked in physical ways, here they especially aim to hurt with verbal deception.
Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. What would neighbors lie about? Property lines, the conditions of something traded or for sale, the purity of a son or daughter given in marriage, where that extra sheep in the flock came from. They might exaggerate, equivocate, or bury in fine print. Not only then must everyone beware, they must also be wise because of the approach: with flattering lips.
”Flattering” is from the Hebrew root ḥlq (“make smooth”). A wooden translation might be something like “lips of smooth things” (Gerald Wilson, The NIV Application Commentary).
Flattery is making the other person feel good about himself so that he swallows the hook, which may also include a lie about why he should feel good about himself.
I don’t know all of the slippery techniques used in David’s day, but our culture wolfs it down. It may be direct, a promoted motto such as McDonalds, “You deserve a break today” or the Oregon Lottery, “It does good things.” It often is indirect, an implication drawn by the narrative such as Head and Shoulders, “You really are sexy, you just need to use this shampoo and then the ladies will know it.” Almost any apparel company, “These clothes will be sure to make you look good and assure that others will accept you.” And almost every automobile ad, “Drive this new car and you will be who you really are, someone important.” (Or, in debt.)
Or how about any number of “scientific studies” or “medical studies”? “You are just a victim of your parents/genetics/ethnicity/environment, take your pick. Four out of five psychologists agree that it isn’t your fault.” Or, “Anyone who spanks their kids does not love them. Of course you love your kids so you wouldn’t be so hateful.” So much of it is propaganda that we have to sort through propaganda about propaganda.
This double-talk belches out of a double heart. These flatterers are two-faced, fork-tongued. Here double doesn’t mean that they are uncertain but that they are underhanded. They hide their motives under word shades. They do not have integrity, oneness. They do not have transparency in the sense that you cannot easily see all that is there; their words cover rather than reveal. It would be blessing to a people if God would make men honest, or at least stop the liars. That’s the next part of the song.
David explained why he needed help in verses 1 and 2. Now he explains what he meant by help.
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?”
(Psalm 12:3–4)
What he wants is for the LORD [to] cut off all flattering lips. Cut off means to make them stop, like cutting off a stream stops the flow of water. Usually the intention of this prayer would not be for Yahweh to grant these men repentance so that they would stop lying but rather that Yahweh would judge and punish them, even to the point of death. However He did it, dam up the fountain of flattery.
Flattery often spouts from men who are proud; a smooth talking tongue typically is a tongue that makes great boasts. Based on verse 4, this isn’t merely over-promising and under-delivering (think messages such as “Hope” or “Change” or “Weight-loss pills”). This is overconfidence in oneself. Those who say, ‘With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us’. They believe themselves to be above the law and beyond the reach of authority.
We might think of lawyers who expect to talk themselves and their clients out of every corner or public relations professionals who spin the crisis. They employ empty rhetoric that manipulates and argues and railroads. Campaign promises and executive orders and platform building without foundation. These are viral uses of words that are as disgusting as they are empty. As the Lord rescues the faithful He rebukes the flatterers.
Unlike the words of the flatterers, the words of the LORD are flawless, faithful, so dependable and valuable. David’s comfort in a culture of lies came from having true revelation.
“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.
(Psalm 12:5–6)
With a prophetic tone, verse 5 reveals the LORD’s position in His own voice. ‘Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise,’ says the LORD. The flattery was especially targeted toward the weak of the society, as Psalm 10 also described. Were the poor godly? Maybe. But then there would be more than one (against David’s comment in verse 1). Or maybe how the poor were treated is an example of how displeasing the culture was overall. Either way, the LORD sees and the LORD promises, ‘I will now arise,…I will place him in the safety for which he longs’. Yahweh says, “I will help.” Safety is a form of word save in verse 1.
He doesn’t say when He will help but He does say that He will help. “God will not suffer the wicked thus to make havoc without end and measure” (John Calvin). This means that the faithful must trust God and wait. We have every reason to believe that God will fulfill this promise even though we see lies all around us. His words are different.
The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. Pure means more than moral, though they are clean. Pure means unmixed, unalloyed, as the imagery confirms. Seven suggests the idea of completeness; this silver was thoroughly tested in the crucible. All that remains after smelting is sterling. As such, it is valuable. God’s Word is like that. The wicked are slick, the LORD is sure.
When lies buzz in our ears like so many mosquitos inside the beekeepers hat, when flattery spins us so dizzy that we can’t focus, we turn our ears to hear God’s true word. And in this context, we tune in to the channel of God’s promises. The LORD does not over-promise and under-deliver. It is His burden more than it is David’s or ours. God will arise and take care of the lied to.
There are two parts to this final section of the song. First is a declaration of trust in the promise and second is a (re)description of the problem.
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 12:7–8)
David, and those who sing his song, address Yahweh again in response to Yahweh’s words. There is confidence that He will save. You, O LORD, will keep them, that is, He will deliver the poor and needy. You will guard us from this generation forever. David includes himself in the category of the needy. The LORD will protect and keep His people, however few there may be amidst a generation, among all the people living at the same time in mostly the same location.
The praise, however, is not due to having been delivered but in light of going-to-be delivered. For the moment, the problem is as bad as it was at the beginning of the song. On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the children of man. The wicked fence in the weak. The majority opinion prefers and promotes vileness; they love what is foul, filthy, rank. The Hebrew word may come from a root meaning “to be supple and lax, narrow, low, [so] weak and worthless” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament). Men love cheap lies. They prefer darkness and hate the light so that their mouths won’t be washed out with soap. Two hearts suit their lusts well, no reason to have one removed.
The song ends on this low note, but the ultimate end was sung about in verses 5 and 7.
The message of Psalm 12 not an attack on what Rahab did to protect the spies, nor should it be used to criticize those who hid Jews from the German soldiers. This is also not an attack on encouragement or compliments. It addresses those who use words to destroy instead of protect or build up. It addresses rhetoric without substance, false advertising, and, as an old rap song put it, valuing straight teeth in the mouth more than the words that come out of it.
Words are war, or at least they are weapons in the hostility between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. Sons of Christ need not be discouraged. He who created by the word, He who curates the dictionary, He who keeps track of all talk, He cares and much more than the godly can by themselves. We can do more than complain about false advertising and broken promises, we can sing.
[Let us] not be discouraged by the vast multitude of the ungodly, if we should sometimes see an immense heap of chaff upon the barn-floor of the Lord, while only a few grains of corn lie hidden underneath. (John Calvin)
Let us be vigilant against flattery. Let us be wise as serpents when it comes to saying no to the world’s bologna. Let us say yes to the pure words of God. Let us think on those words day and night. Let us hit a mental repeat button that replays songs with silver lyrics. Let us pray for the Lord to deliver us from this age of flatterers. And let us commit to be honest in our own speech as we speak the truth in love.
When you walk out this morning, you will be promised many things. Commercials, contracts, magazine ads, blog posts about five ways to not read online lists, government subsidies, legislative saviors. Beware the lies that hide in flattering clothes. Even more, be in-dwelt by the word of Christ, a perfect, sure, true word.
And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. (Acts 20:32, ESV)