Psalm 12
If it talks, it lies
Honesty has disappeared
A psalm of David. Note to music leader: use stringed instruments. Use a low octave. [1]
1LORD, I need your help because all the good folks are gone.Honest people have disappeared.
2If it’s human and talking, it’s lying.
Everywhere there’s fake flattery and self-serving speeches.
3I wish the LORD would cut flattering lips right off those faces.
Take those wagging tongues, too, bragging big.
4These people said, “We can talk our way out of anything.
We own these lips, so we can say what we want.
And who’s going to stop us?”
5The LORD answers. “That would be me.
I see how you decimated the poor.
I hear them groaning in prayer.
I’ll give the needy everything they need.”
6The LORD’s words are pure truth.
As pure as silver refined in a furnace,
seven times over.
7You, LORD, have got us now.
You’ll keep us from generation to generation
To time that never ends.
8But for now, the wicked strut and prowl
As evil takes its bows before the admiring human race.
Footnotes
The subtitle wasn’t part of the original psalm. And the possible byline “of David,” isn’t necessarily a byline. The vague phrase could mean the song was written by David, about David, or was inspired by David. Almost half of the psalms are attributed to David in this way, 73 of 150. Ancient Jewish history tells of David playing a lyre and writing songs. For one, he wrote a song of mourning at the battlefield death of King Saul and his sons: “How have the mighty fallen!” (2 Samuel 1:19-27 New American Standard Bible). An ancient Jewish scroll from about the time of Jesus, discovered among the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, reports that David wrote 3,600 songs. “Use a low octave” is a guess. It’s based on the idea that the lyrics are solemn, and a good fit with music played in quiet tones and in a bass octave. The Hebrew word, sheminith, is a mystery, like selah.
Seven is a number Bible writers used to symbolize perfection or completion. The symbol comes from the creation story. God rested on the seventh day, after he finished creation.
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