Psalms 12:1

PSALM 12

SUPPLICATION IN A TIME OF DEGENERACY (FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN; SET TO THE SHEMINITH. A PSALM OF DAVID).

The title we have selected here is from Arnold B. Rhodes.[1] The age of David was in some ways the Golden Age of Israel, but here is a revelation that the moral condition of society as a whole was one of the utmost degeneracy.

Psalms 12:1-2

"Help, Jehovah; for the godly man ceaseth;

For the faithful fail from among the children of men.

They speak falsehood everyone with his neighbor:

With flattering lips and a double heart, do they speak."

It would seem that the small remnant of the righteous which always existed in Israel was here forgotten in these first two verses, or perhaps we have merely an hyperbole for the sake of emphasis.

The universality of wickedness among the rebellious sons of Adam has been throughout human history a frequently recurring phenomenon. The particular type of immorality that existed in the situation described here seems to have been that of speech. An entire society had completely lost control of their tongues. Falsehood, flattery, deceit, slander, gossip, hypocrisy, derogation, belittling, discrediting, libel, calumniation, traducement, backbiting, cheating, misleading, tricking, hoaxing, and victimizing are just a few of the sins of the tongue; and the three particular ones mentioned in these two verses are to be understood merely as examples of the countless outrages perpetrated by tongues out of control.

"These two verses are a statement of the prevailing condition of things, announced here as a reason why it was proper for God to interpose."[2]

The very basis of Christianity is that of absolute truthfulness, sincerity, and love. No child of God may lawfully do anything other than "Speak the truth" (Ephesians 4:15). Moreover, the Scriptures specifically promise that "All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (Revelation 21:8).