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Psalms:12

To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David.

(page last updated: Sept 8 2019)

Today's Text:

Today's Audio Commentary: "The Faithful Disappear"

Today's Commentary Outline: "The Faithful Disappear"

1. "The Faithful Disappear" - Introduction:
• In Psalms:12 the picture is:


• The LORD being called upon to correct a critical situation for the saint. 12:1


• A failing or ceasing presence/influence of the saint from among the children of men. 12:1


• Children of men gravitating towards an attitude and language that takes world matters upon themselves. 12:2-4


• The children of men heading towards a judgment based upon the tangible oppressive results of those attitudes and words. 12:5


• The vile influence over the children of men by certain vile men who are in turn surrounded by the influence of wicked men. 12:8


• The importance to the saint of the LORD's judgment over these things and the purity of the LORD's word. 12:6-7


• (something about this situation is causing the saints ceasing/failing either the saint causing it upon the children of men by his failing/ceasing or (as in caused upon him) a result of what the children of men are actually doing - perhaps both).


• (The LORD is being called to perform this correction in David's generation/generations since)


• (Would it be right for today's saint to call upon the LORD again for yet another correction?)


• Character profiles developing of both the saint and the broader "children of men".


• First: There are two descriptions given 12:1 of the saint:


• the godly man


Quoted resource: strongs 'H2623'

H2623 @ חסיד châsîyd khaw-seed' From H2616; properly {kind} that {is} (religiously) pious (a saint): - godly ({man}) {good} holy ({one}) {merciful} {saint} [un-] godly.


• the faithful


Quoted resource: strongs 'H539'

H539 @ אמן 'âman aw-man' A primitive root; properly to build up or support; to foster as a parent or nurse; figuratively to render (or be) firm or {faithful} to trust or {believe} to be permanent or quiet; morally to be true or certain; once (in ; by interchange for H541) to go to the right hand: - hence {assurance} {believe} bring {up} {establish} + {fail} be faithful (of long {continuance} {stedfast} {sure} {surely} {trusty} {verified}) {nurse} (-ing {father}) ({put}) {trust} turn to the right.


• Two things are observed by the psalmist David about these men's presence and influence among all the children of men:


• it is "ceasing"


Quoted resource: strongs 'H1584'

H1584 @ גּמר gâmar gaw-mar' A primitive root; to end (in the sense of completion or failure): - {cease} come to an {end} {fail} {perfect} perform.


• it is "failing"


Quoted resource: strongs 'H6461'

H6461 @ פּסס pâsas paw-sas' A primitive root; probably to {disperse} that {is} (intransitively) disappear: - cease.


• ?Is this the condition that we find ourself in today (failing/ceasing of kind/pious supportive/nurturing men)?


• Second: 12:2-5 broader character profile =the children of men 12:1


• (note: This is one of the first of our psalms studied so far that hasn't focused primarily the wicked (doesn't until 12:8 at least))


• They (children of men) speak vanity (desolation/ruin) every one with his neighbor 12:2


• (They/children of men) with flattering (smooth/slippery) lips and with a double_heart (stiff/stout - feeling/will/intellect) do they speak 12:2


• (They/children of men with) flattering lips, and the tongue - speaketh proud things 12:3


• (They/Who have said) With our tongue will we prevail 12:4


• (They/Who have said) our lips are our own 12:4


• (They/Who have said) who is lord over us? 12:4


• (They/children of men) (to be held accountable for) oppression (ravaging/robbery/spoil) of the poor (depressed in mind/circumstance) 12:5


• (They/children of men) (to be held accountable for) the sighing (shrieking/crying out) of the needy (destitute) 12:5


• Sounds like our earlier description of the wicked here but it is not. It is the description of a society that is easily manipulated by the wicked to do the wicked's own work.


• ?Is this a valid assessment of our present state as children of men?


• Given two profiles - Is David suggesting:


• Cease/Fail because they are up against the "Children of Men" as much/more than as the wicked?


• Cease/Fail (past tense) and therefore the "Children of Men" become this?


• Cease/fail because they cease/fail at being godly (kind/pious/good/merciful) and faithful (build up/support/nuture)?


• We'll have an interesting time today considering these and other options more fully. Why are the godly and faithful ceasing/disappearing?






2. "A Few Preliminary Understandings to Consider": 12:
• False idea: masses are largely caught in middle between the Righteous and the Wicked


• mostly innocent? loyal? typically know what is right and do what is best? (almost as if left to their own they would get all of their issues sorted out)


• they are the victims? that their problems are really more problems with leadership and government and top down injustice/inequality?


• Scripturally speaking this idea just is not supported.


• The masses are just as culpable before God as either the successful wicked or the failing saint. (more like wicked/righteous trying to keep up with the masses)


• Now certainly the classification "children of men" is a huge tent that covers a whole lot of ground.


• Do all men under this tent individually fit this exact profile? enough?


• I am prepared to say as does kjv@Psalms:14:2-3 and kjv@Psalms:53:2-3



kjv@Psalms:14:2 @ The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.

kjv@Psalms:14:3 @ They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

• Given this declaration of scripture, we could hypothesize David's meaning either as being:


• all men have gone aside and thereby the logical distinction of one being godly/faithful is merely relative and therefore logically ceases.


• all men have gone aside but for a few that God has brought back in line, and due to the opposition to their presence and influence their effect upon society becomes harder and harder to sustain.


• godly/faithful are becoming more and more like the rest of all men.


• The first thing we have to be able to do is see the masses in terms of a body, overall directions/movements/tendencies/accomplishments


• (single organism under microscope) many cells doing separate seemingly unrelated things/unconscious of singular movement as a body.


• (an automobile) with several moving parts but one purpose.


• (a stew boiling in one pot) several different ingredients bringing about one conglomerate flavor.


• It is easy to say "well I am an onion and will always be/can't judge me for that" when the butler is tasting a foul soup and prepared to throw the whole pot out into the compost.


• One might say "ah, but isn't that foul soup the chef's doing?" therein lays the true problem, in the case of the children of men the pot has decided to become it's own chef.


• The second thing we have to be able to get a accurate measurement of (to use the soup analogy) is just how foul this human soup has become.


• Foul is not a judgment that the soup can make of itself, all that we can go by is what has been said of it from outside the pot.


• (Genesis) - Within the first generation the children of men were killing each other over religion.


• (Genesis) - Within another 10+/- generations the daughters of men were marrying the "sons of God" and bearing children.


• (Genesis) - After reset within a few generations there has to be a confusion of the languages to keep them from doing all that they set their minds to do.


• (Genesis) - A few generations later we see all the citizen of two major cities demand to have forcible sex with two visiting angels.


• (Exodus) - We see slavery grow into national proportions.


• (Exodus) - We see a young nation just delivered out of slavery at the foot of a mountain known to be inhabited by Jehovah commit idolatry and perverse wickedness at the foot of that mountain while their prophet was in the very process of receiving God's law.


• (OT) - We see that particular nation swear itself to a conditional covenant that it never really did ever fully keep and most times failed miserably at. (not even the law could contain them)


• (NT) - We see that same particular nation suffer at the double measure reward of that conditional covenant, long without a prophet, long without it's true scepter, for the sake of it's long falsified religion and for fear of it's position and standing with the Roman Empire screaming for the execution of it's promised messiah despite him being proven innocent and there being a fiasco of injustice and false testimony having been presented.


• One might say "well that's just that one particular nation". What if that is not just that one particular nation? What if that one particular nation is rather the best example of all examples that could be presented of their being the slightest goodness left of all the children of men?


• One might say "well that does not mean that all of us are that way". Well, not all of Israel was that way certainly but, still that has been well proven by history to be their over all direction. This then is their lasting achievement.


• The third point: To compartmentalize ourselves from the impending judgment we tell ourselves that God does not judge these matters by the mass but by the individual.


• Let me ask: when God sentenced Adam and Eve, did HE sentence just Adam and Eve? or all their descendants?


• Let me ask: when God sentenced Israel to 40 years in the wilderness, did HE sentence just those that had talked themselves out of receiving the Promise Land? or did HE sentence all of Israel?


• Let me ask: when King David conducted a census that he had been forbidden to take (kjv@1Chronicles:21:1-8), did God smite just David? or did HE smite Israel?


• Let me ask: when Israel was finally sentenced into Babylonian captivity, was just the unrighteous of Israel sentenced? or both the unrighteous and the righteous?


• See we are nearly talking three separate things here, the future judgment of the individual towards eternal salvation, the continuous judgment of bodies of men within the larger body of mankind, the judgment of mankind as a whole which God had judged in Adam.






3. A Foul Foulness Indeed: 12:
• It is not without reason that God judges the children of men:



kjv@Psalms:12:5 @ For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.

• Likely this is not the final judgment spoken of but a continuing judgment of nations.


• Judgment for salvation based on the presence of the blood of Christ covering.


• Note that this judgment doesn't even include all the other sin that we presently cause upon each other.


• Let's better consider this oppression:


• On a human level what the level of maleficence is that constitutes "oppression" is in the eye of the beholder.


• Even the poor oppress the poor (survival of fittest)


• In the biblical past (largely an agrarian culture) poverty was caused by famine/plague, death of parents or spouse, bad company, thievery, usury, enslavement


• Modern classifications of poverty are complicated by sloth/vagrancy/debt, abandonment, drunkenness/addiction, criminal background, promiscuity leading to underage pregnancy, derangement and mental illness, migrancy


• There are also temporary conditions of poverty such as unemployment, divorce, child support, bankruptcy.


• There are also those that feel themselves poor and suck up the majority of resources that otherwise would have gone to the truly poor.


• There are also those that falsify their income in order receive dole.


• In the bible the most common forms of maleficences against the poor are described as:


• Usury (charging interest)


• Not observing the jubilee of the poor/not restoring former land or possessions.


• Not giving the corners of one's crop to


• Withholding what is rightfully due


• Robbery/fraud


• Cursing or making a spectacle of


• Thrusting out


• Lying against


• Denying justice to or false imprisonment of


• An interesting point is made kjv@Ecclesiastes:4:1



kjv@Ecclesiastes:4:1 @ So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

• The oppressed and the oppressor are alike in that neither finds relief


• Multiple instances recorded in the scriptures of God both warning nations/judging nations/punishing nations, (See Nehemiah Isaiah Ezekiel Amos)


• Poor are a target of the wicked because God Jehovah (specifically) is their God and they trust in Him


• Biblically, the times when the both the righteous and the poor have removed from the picture are the times when the wicked have had the most authority.


• (Funny, seems to be precisely what the far left progressive movement is saying that they want to do).


• We say that we are all in on the poor and destitute in the USA but, what is the truth of the matter?


• Our definition of poor and needy today has being greatly expanded into the idea of paying off all student loan debt/free college for all, Medicare for all, forgiveness of unpaid taxes for those that haven't paid taxes at the expense of raising the taxes of those that have, unfettered welfare and food stamps, entitlements.


• Literally everyone of us can be made to feel that we are poor of something that we really should be entitled to. And so this is the mindset with which we cast or vote.


• Certainly oppression of the truly poor and destitute is not any of our intentions but, what does all of this amount to when it is all said and done?


• How can any of us feel good about this?


• We have essentially "puffed" at the poor 12:5. God then will have to put those poor at safety in our stead.


• A body of people, any body of people should be judged first and foremost by the way it treats it's needy. Judgment can never be weighed by the sheer weight and volume of the bureaucracy and industry surrounding it but, by the immediate effect of it upon whom it was initially intended.






4. "The Words of the LORD are Pure Words": 12:6
• Contrast with words of men (vanity/flattering/double hearted/proud) there is no similarity.


• Men judge God's word as being judgmental.


• God judges men's words by their destructive/hardened/rebellious/self willed/oppressive results.


• Whose word should you trust?


• "as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times" 12:6


• Consider: Words spanning millenniums of divine interaction with mankind (recorded for all to see and learn by)


• Dealing with men of various generations always swirling aimlessly in the small little cesspools of their own words and conceit.


• Man's word in the same furnace amounts to little or nothing but (vanity/flattering/double hearted/proud)


• Man's word in the same furnace amounts to little or nothing but destructive/hardened/rebellious/self willed/oppressive accomplishment.


• According to psalmist: They (children of men) speak vanity (desolation/ruin) every one with his neighbour 12:2


• Consider how what we initially think is good/polite/informed/inspiring speech in truth is nothing more than desolation/ruin


• The speech of our leaders, the pundents, the media spin miesters, lobbyists + political combatants.


• Not only nationally or statewide but locally (school boards, teacher unions, planning commissions, activist groups)


• Doesn't that amount to: With our tongue will we prevail/our lips are our own/who is lord over us?


• Sounds good on the surface but, what results? desolation/ruin? (yes without the presence or influence of the godly/faithful)


• Oppression of the poor?


• According to psalmist: (They/children of men) with flattering (smooth/slippery) lips and with a double_heart (stiff/stout - feeling/will/intellect) do they speak 12:2


• feeling/will/intellect is tricky thing to decipher among men (what sounds grand/noble 1st = ?)


• we learned from Profile of Wicked that the wicked have mastered the ability to lead people where they wish by the snout of their compassions and moral outrages.


• smooth and slippery lips implies something hidden beneath the surface that doesn't want to be known.


• We flatter ourselves by pointing to the government's corruption being our problem hiding the fact of debilitating nature of our own.


• We flatter ourselves by pointing to the greedy capitalists sucking up all our potential savings when it is actually our drunken covetousness and financial stupidity/mismanagement


• We flatter ourselves thinking if we only get the right candidate/party/judges/political system when none of that changes who we've become in all this.


• We flatter ourselves by calling our opponents bigots/racists/supremacist/homophobes/immoral/unjust/uneducated/heartless when little of it is true and we are doing nothing more than virtue signaling our particular group speak over others.


• Doesn't that amount to: With our tongue will we prevail/our lips are our own/who is lord over us?


• Sounds good on the surface but, what results? slippery/stout? (yes without the presence or influence of the godly/faithful)


• Oppression of the poor?


• According to psalmist: (They/children of men with) flattering lips, and the tongue - speaketh proud (great/insolent/far exceeding) things 12:3


• Proud things/Proud things/Proud things. Isn't that the speaking that we are hearing from so many different places?


• Proud things about identity/self desire and self will and self fulfillment/reward and entitlement?


• Doesn't that amount to: With our tongue will we prevail/our lips are our own/who is lord over us?


• Sounds good on the surface but, what results? great/insolent/far exceeding? (yes without the presence or influence of the godly/faithful)


• Oppression of the poor?


• Is psalmist speaking the "Word of God" when he associates:


• Vanity/flattery/proud = (They/Who have said) With our tongue will we prevail 12:4


• Vanity/flattery/proud = (They/Who have said) our lips are our own 12:4


• Vanity/flattery/proud = (They/Who have said) who is lord over us? 12:4


• Words - everything said thus far about this children of men profile has to do with words first and foremost.



kjv@Matthew:12:36 @ But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

• But words alone are not the only basis from which HE is going to judge us by.


• God's words: "Thou shalt keep them (pure/tried words), O LORD, thou shalt preserve (guard/protect) them from this generation for ever" 12:7


• "This generation" is a phrase used often in scripture (kjv@STRING:this+generation) rarely is it good:



kjv@Psalms:95:10 @ Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:


kjv@Matthew:11:16 @ But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows,

kjv@Matthew:11:17 @ And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.

kjv@Matthew:11:18 @ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.

kjv@Matthew:11:19 @ The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.


kjv@Matthew:12:34 @ O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.


kjv@Matthew:12:39 @ But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:


kjv@Matthew:12:41 @ The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

kjv@Matthew:12:42 @ The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.


kjv@Matthew:17:17 @ Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.


kjv@Luke:11:50 @ That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;

kjv@Luke:11:51 @ From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

• We again have the consideration of God's judgment not just being upon individuals at their final judgment for the sins they themselves have committed but, also God's judgment in terms peoples and nations and generations (not just individual generations but a generation of generations as a whole)



kjv@Psalms:12:3 @ The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:

kjv@Psalms:12:4 @ Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?

kjv@Psalms:12:5 @ For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.

kjv@Psalms:12:6 @ The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

kjv@Psalms:12:7 @ Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.





5. *"Help, LORD; for the Godly Man Ceaseth":* 12:1 The Faithful Disappear - Conclusion 12:
• Hard to imagine where the children of men would be without the presence and influence of the godly/faithful.


• Some today are imagining/engineering a world without godly/faithful presence/influence


• It is not that the godly/faithful are perfect and sinless, it is that we don't see the children of men prevailing/having lips that are their own/having much of anything to speak proudly of themselves about.


• The godly/faithful (when in right mind) humble themselves to presence and influence of a great and fearful God who with judgment yes but, judgment born of great irreducible compassion reaches down through HIS beloved Son to deliver men and women.


• The godly/faithful (when in wrong mind) beat people into some form of religious submission, oppressive legalism, witch hunts and inquisitions.


• This is humble attitude is a good positive presence/influence to have upon the children of men. The opposite brings about an ugly ugly blaspheme of God's good name.


• Historically, when the truly godly/faithful have had this presence/influence in families/communities/nations goodness even amng non-believers has increased.


• City jails have nearly emptied, crime rates decline, braffels have closed, taverns have dried up. Not because of human law or ordinance but, because of human civility an pleasantness.


• Orphanages have arisen, charities raised, hospitals built, colleges, missions and foreign work.


• City corruption has been checked, civil rights fought for, government checks and balances instituted.


• I warn you because all of this good presence/influence seems to be quickly over run (even from within).


• Some would say that this why we must keep the Christians away from this. With our laws/social + economic engineering/indoctrination/words man will prevail.


• My response: "Help, LORD; for the Godly Man Ceaseth" 12:1


• Godliness/Faithfulness has never been the majority, not even in the Church (such are the children of men)


• I am not calling for the domination of Church over a society.


• I am calling the few of a godly/faithful mindset to have a godly/faithful presence and influence, not to cower.


• The godly/faithful mindset is becoming good/moral/pious/kind and nurturing in humble reverence to God.


• Presence/influence in the family/neighborhoods/communities/organizations/society/politics.


• Just look at what the world quickly becomes without it!


• How best to apply today's material?



kjv@Ephesians:5:1 @ Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

kjv@Ephesians:5:2 @ And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

kjv@Ephesians:5:3 @ But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;

kjv@Ephesians:5:4 @ Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.

kjv@Ephesians:5:5 @ For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

kjv@Ephesians:5:6 @ Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

kjv@Ephesians:5:7 @ Be not ye therefore partakers with them.

kjv@Ephesians:5:8 @ For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

kjv@Ephesians:5:9 @ (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)

kjv@Ephesians:5:10 @ Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

kjv@Ephesians:5:11 @ And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

kjv@Ephesians:5:12 @ For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

kjv@Ephesians:5:13 @ But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.

kjv@Ephesians:5:14 @ Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

kjv@Ephesians:5:15 @ See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

kjv@Ephesians:5:16 @ Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

kjv@Ephesians:5:17 @ Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

kjv@Ephesians:5:18 @ And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

kjv@Ephesians:5:19 @ Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

kjv@Ephesians:5:20 @ Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

kjv@Ephesians:5:21 @ Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

• Add to that: the word (rock) of holy scripture


• Word of God pure/tried/purified 12:6


• Thou shalt keep them 12:7


• thou shalt preserve them 12:7


• from this generation for ever 12:7



kjv@Psalms:12:1 @ Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.


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