Psalm 12 “False and Faithful Words”
12:1 “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be, for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men” “As the Psalm opens, it is as though the man of God has looked up to find himself surrounded, and his allies gone. Where another man, in a minority of one, might have rethought his position, David signals for help. He is not retreating” (Psalms 1-72, Derek Kidner p. 75). David feels isolated, as other godly men have felt (1 Kings 19:10); he considers the righteous a vanishing breed. This is often a common experience for the faithful, as one gets older and realizes the culture has drastically declined morally everywhere around them. 12:2 “They speak falsehood to one another; with flattering lips and with a double heart they speak” Here is what David sees happening among the unrighteous. Their words are false. “Empty talk, smooth talk and double talk are here, followed by the boasters, whose policy sums up that of their fellows: to manipulate the hearer rather than communicate with him. Flattering talk is literally ‘smooth’: all the deadlier for the pleasure it gives and the addiction it creates (for its comfort becomes indispensible), as the latter history of Israel will show (Isaiah 30:10). A double heart significantly traces the double talk to its source in ‘double think’—for the deceiver becomes one of his own victims, with no truth to unite his character” (Kidner p. 75). They Speak Falsehood Lying has become both common and acceptable. People expect others to lie to them. Words are not used to advance the truth, but to advance their own evil agendas. The Hebrew word for falsehood here includes distortion of the truth, and it also includes the idea of “emptiness”, which brings with it the added ideas of insincerity and irresponsibility. Thus, communication has been cheapened and corroded into