Psalm 12
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village Preacher
Other Work
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 Psalm VI. 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 the first and second verses David spreads his plaint
before the Lord concerning the treachery of his age; verses 3 and 4
denounce judgments upon proud traitors; in verse 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 verses 6 and 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.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. "Help, Lord." A short but sweet, suggestive,
seasonable, and serviceable prayer; a kind of angel's sword, to be
turned every way, and to be used on all occasions. Ainsworth says the
word rendered "help," is largely used for all manner of saving,
helping, delivering, preserving, etc. Thus it seems that the prayer
is very full and instructive. The Psalmist sees the extreme danger of
his position, for a man had better be among lions than among liars;
he feels his own inability to deal with such sons of Belial, for "he
who shall touch them must be fenced with iron;" he therefore turns
himself to his all-sufficient Helper, the Lord, whose help is never
denied to his servants, and whose aid is enough for all their needs.
"Help, Lord," is a very useful ejaculation which we may dart
up to heaven on occasions of emergency, whether in labour, learning,
suffering, fighting, living, or dying. As small ships can sail into
harbours which larger vessels, drawing more water, cannot enter, so
our brief cries and short petitions may trade with heaven when our
soul is wind-bound, and business-bound, as to longer exercises of
devotion, and when the stream of grace seems at too low an ebb to
float a more laborious supplication. "For the godly man
ceaseth;" the death, departure, or decline of godly men should be
a trumpet-call for more prayer. They say that fish smell first at the
head, and when godly men decay, the whole commonwealth will soon go
rotten. We must not, however, be rash in our judgment on this point,
for Elijah erred in counting himself the only servant of God alive,
when there were thousands whom the Lord held in reserve. The present
times always appear to be peculiarly dangerous, because they are
nearest to our anxious gaze, and whatever evils are rife are sure to
be observed, while the faults of past ages are further off, and are
more easily overlooked. Yet we expect that in the latter days,
"because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold," and
then we must the more thoroughly turn from man, and address ourselves
to the Churches' Lord, by whose help the gates of hell shall be kept
from prevailing against us. "The faithful fail from among the
children of men;" when godliness goes, faithfulness inevitably
follows; without fear of God, men have no love of truth. Common
honesty is no longer common, when common irreligion leads to
universal godlessness. David had his eye on Doeg, and the men of Ziph
and Keilah, and perhaps remembered the murdered priests of Nob, and
the many banished ones who consorted with him in the cave of Adullam,
and wondered where the state would drift without the anchors of its
godly and faithful men. David, amid the general misrule, did not
betake himself to seditious plottings, but to solemn petitionings;
nor did he join with the multitude to do evil, but took up the arms
of prayer to withstand their attacks upon virtue.
Verse 2. "They speak vanity every one with his
neighbour." They utter that which is vain to hear, because
of its frivolous, foolish, want of worth; vain to believe,
because it was false and lying; vain to trust to, since it was
deceitful and flattering; vain to regard, for it lifted up the
hearer, filling him with proud conceit of himself. It is a sad thing
when it is the fashion to talk vanity. "Ca'me, and I'll ca'thee." is
the old Scotch proverb; give me a high sounding character, and I will
give you one. Compliments and fawning congratulations are hateful to
honest men; they know that if they take they must give them, and they
scorn to do either. These accommodation-bills are most admired by
those who are bankrupt in character. Bad are the times when every man
thus cajoles and cozens his neighbour. "With flattering lips and
with a double heart do they speak." He who puffs up another's
heart, has nothing better than wind in his own. If a man extols me to
my face, he only shows me one side of his heart, and the other is
black with contempt for me, or foul with intent to cheat me. Flattery
is the sign of the tavern where duplicity is the host. The Chinese
consider a man of two hearts to be a very base man, and we shall be
safe in reckoning all flatteries to be such.
Verses 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, than Caesar is of riding him. The mat on
which the emperor wiped his shoes, boasts vaingloriously, 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.
Verse 5. In due season the Lord will hear his elect ones, who cry day
and night unto him, and though he bear long with their oppressors,
yet will he avenge them speedily. Observe that the mere oppression of
saints, however silently they bear it, is in itself a cry to God:
Moses was heard at the Red Sea, though he said nothing; and Hagar's
affliction was heard despite her silence. Jesus feels with his
people, and their smarts are mighty orators with him. By-and-by,
however, they begin to sigh and express their misery, and then
relief comes post-haste. Nothing moves a father like the cries of his
children; he bestirs himself, wakes up his manhood, overthrows the
enemy, and sets his beloved in safety. A puff is too much for
the child to bear, and the foe is so haughty, that he laughs the
little one to scorn; but the Father comes, and then it is the child's
turn to laugh, when he is set above the rage of his tormentor. What
virtue is there in a poor man's sighs, that they should move the
Almighty God to arise from his throne. The needy did not dare to
speak, and could only sigh in secret, but the Lord heard, and could
rest no longer, but girded on his sword for the battle. It is a fair
day when our soul brings God into her quarrel, for when his bare arm
is seen, Philistia shall rue the day. The darkest hours of the
Church's night are those which precede the break of day. Man's
extremity is God's opportunity. Jesus will come to deliver just when
his needy ones shall sigh, as if all hope had gone for ever. O Lord,
set thy now near at hand, and rise up speedily to our help.
Should the afflicted reader be able to lay hold upon the promise of
this verse, let him gratefully fetch a fulness of comfort from it.
Gurnall says, "As one may draw out the wine of a whole hogshead at
one tap, so may a poor soul derive the comfort of the whole covenant
to himself through one promise, if he be able to apply it." He who
promises to set us in safety, means thereby preservation on earth,
and eternal salvation in heaven.
Verse 6. What a contrast between the vain words of man, and the pure
words of Jehovah. Man's words are yea and nay, but the Lord's
promises are yea and amen. For truth, certainty, holiness,
faithfulness, the words of the Lord are pure as well-refined silver.
In the original there is an allusion to the most severely-purifying
process known to the ancients, through which silver was passed when
the greatest possible purity was desired; the dross was all consumed,
and only the bright and precious metal remained; so clear and free
from all alloy of error or unfaithfulness is the book of the words of
the Lord. The Bible has passed through the furnace of persecution,
literary criticism, philosophic doubt, and scientific discovery, and
has lost nothing but those human interpretations which clung to it as
alloy to precious ore. The experience of saints has tried it in every
conceivable manner, but not a single doctrine or promise has been
consumed in the most excessive heat. What God's words are, the words
of his children should be. If we would be Godlike in conversation, we
must watch our language, and maintain the strictest purity of
integrity and holiness in all our communications.
Verse 7. To fall into the hands of an evil generation, so as to be
baited by their cruelty, or polluted by their influence, is an evil
to be dreaded beyond measure; but it is an evil foreseen and provided
for in the text. In life many a saint has lived a hundred years