Bruce’s Bible
Open Your Bible
The Treasury of David
Psalm 12
Title. This Psalm is headed “To the Chief Musician upon Sheminith, a Psalm of David, “which title is identical with that of the sixth Psalm, except that Neginoth is here omitted. We have nothing new to add, and therefore refer the reader to our remarks on the dedication of Psalms 6:1-10. As Sheminith signifies the eighth, the Arabic version says it is concerning the end of the world, which shall be the eighth day, and refers it to the coming of the Messiah: without accepting so fanciful an interpretation, we may read this song of complaining faith in the light of His coming who shall break in pieces the oppressor. The subject will be the better before the mind’s eye if we entitle this Psalm: “Good Thoughts In Bad Times.” It is supposed to have been written while Saul was persecuting David, and those who favoured his cause.
Division. In Psalms 12:1-2 David spreads his complaint before the Lord concerning the treachery of his age; Psalms 12:3-4 denounce judgments upon proud traitors; in Psalms 12:5, Jehovah himself thunders out his wrath against oppressors; hearing this, the Chief Musician sings sweetly of the faithfulness of God and his care of his people, in Psalms 12:6-7; but closes on the old key of lament in verse 8, as he observes the abounding wickedness of his times. Those holy souls who dwell in Mesech, and sojourn in the tents of Kedar, may read and sing these sacred stanzas with hearts in full accord with their mingled melody of lowly mourning and lofty confidence.
The Treasury of David.
Psalm 12:3
Exposition
Ver. 3-4. Total destruction shall overwhelm the lovers of flattery and pride, but meanwhile how they hector and fume! Well did the apostle call them “raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame.” Free thinkers are generally very free talkers, and they are never more at ease than when railing at God’s dominion, and arrogating to themselves unbounded license. Strange is it that the easy yoke of the Lord should so gall the shoulders of the proud, while the iron bands of Satan they bind about themselves as chains of honour: they boastfully cry unto God,
Who is lord over us? and hear not the hollow voice of the evil one, who cries from the infernal lake, “I am your lord, and right faithfully do ye serve me.” Alas, poor fools, their pride and glory shall be cut off like a fading flower! May God grant that our soul may not be gathered with them. It is worthy of observation that flattering lips, and tongues speaking proud things, are classed together: the fitness of this is clear, for they are guilty of the same vice, the first flatters another, and the second flatters himself, in both cases a lie is in their right hands. One generally imagines that flatterers are such mean parasites, so cringing and fawning, that they cannot be proud; but the wise man will tell you that while all pride is truly meanness, there is in the very lowest meanness no small degree of pride. Caesar’s horse is even more proud of carrying Caesar, that Caesar is of riding him. The mat on which the emperor wiped his shoes, boasts vain gloriously, crying out, “I cleaned the imperial boots.” None are so detestably domineering as the little creatures who creep into office by cringing to the great; those are bad times, indeed, in which these obnoxious beings are numerous and powerful. No wonder that the justice of God in cutting off such injurious persons is matter for a psalm, for both earth and heaven are weary of such provoking offenders, whose presence is a very plague to the people afflicted thereby. Men cannot tame the tongues of such boastful flatterers; but the Lord’s remedy if sharp is sure, and is an unanswerable answer to their swelling words of vanity.
Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings
The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, etc. They who take pleasure in deceiving others, will at the last find themselves most of all deceived, when the Sun of truth, by the brightness of his rising, shall at once detect and consume hypocrisy. George Horne.
Cut off lips and tongues. May there not be here an allusion to those terrible but suggestive punishments which Oriental monarchs were wont to execute on criminals? Lips were cut off and tongues torn out when offenders were convicted of lying or treason. So terrible and infinitely more so are the punishments of sin. C.H.S.
Ver. 3-4. It need not now seem strange to tell you that the Lord is the owner of our bodies, that he has so much propriety therein that they are more his than ours. The apostle tells us as much. 1 Corinthians 6:20. “Glorify God in your bodies which are his.” Our bodies, and every member thereof, are his: for if the whole be so, no part is exempted. And therefore they spake proud things, and presumptuously usurped the propriety of God, who said, Our lips are our own; as though their lips had not been his who is Lord and Owner of all, but they had been lords thereof, and might have used them as they list. This provoked God to show what right he had to dispose of such lips and tongues, by cutting them off. David Clarkson.
Hints to the Village Preacher
God’s hatred of those twin sins of the lips—Flattery and Pride (which is self flattery). Why he hates them. How he shows his hatred. In whom he hates them most. How to be cleansed from them.
- The revolt of the tongue. Its claim of power, self possession, and liberty. Contrast this and the believer’s confession, “we are not our own.”
- The method of its rebellion—”flattery, and speaking proud things.”
- The end of its treason—”cut off.”
The Treasury of David.
Works Upon The Twelfth Psalm
In “A Godly Meditation upon 20 select Psalms…By Sir Anthony Cope, Knight, 1547, “a thin black letter 4to., is an Exposition, or rather Meditation, on this Psalm. Reprinted 1848.
The Treasury of David.
#Outreach: That the world may know
#Prayer Focus: Pray for Our Prodigals
#Praise the Lord
Please follow my blogs Guam Christian Blog
Bruce’s Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bruce.dinsman
Featured book: https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Service-3-Bruce-Dinsman-ebook
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/93009114
Bruce’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/@bad671
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dinsmanbruce/
Younow: https://www.younow.com/BruceDinsman
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/bdinsman/pins/