The Song of Speech

Psalm 12 begins with David feeling alone and betrayed. He cries out for God to save him because “the godly one is gone… the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.” It’s like the foundations that were destroyed in the previous psalm have left David without any friends or allies. The word “faithful” shares a root with the word hesed, God’s faithful, loyal love. It’s a hint as to why David feels alone: all the people who were loyal, who keep their word, who have responded to God’s loyal love with loyal love toward others — they have all abandoned their promises and vanished. The next verse fills out the picture even more: “Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.” When David looks around at the way human beings interact in society, it feels like everyone has an agenda and no one says what they actually think. It’s all a play, a game, a show. This verse shares some common language with the third and ninth commandments, not taking the LORD’s name in vain and not bearing false witness.  The empty lies, the insincere comments, the smooth talk to manipulate, the double talk to deceive — it all debases the currency of words. Everyone says one thing but does another. Everyone is talking, but no one is saying anything. You can begin to understand how David feels if you’ve ever tried to have a conversation with someone who seems incapable of telling the truth, where it feels like everything that comes out of their mouth is a manipulative move on the chessboard. In this environment, it feels hopeless to say anything because words have so utterly lost their meaning.

In response to the discouraging patterns of speech that David is witnessing, he prays in verse 3, “May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts…” David just wants it to end; he wants God to step in and silence the liars, the flatterers, the boasters, just stop the chatter and noise of it all. He could be using hyperbole to say, “Cut off their lips and tongue so they can’t speak,” but “cutting off” might be a reference to sending someone out of the community into exile. So David could be asking God, “Get them out of my kingdom; their toxic words and double-speak is poison for our society.” Either way, David wants God to silence them, and as a reason for doing so, he summarizes what these boastful tongues say. It’s like David is trying to cut through the smoke and mirrors of deceptive speech and declare, “This is what they’re really saying.” Verse 4: “With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us?” A few people are simply compulsive liars who don’t want anything; they just don’t tell the truth. But usually we use our speech to get what we want. The tongue is one of the most powerful weapons in the Bible, because it has the power to lift someone up or completely tear them down. David can see that when lies and flattery is the default way of speaking, it’s not simply the truth that suffers; it’s the vulnerable, the victims, the ones who are used and discarded by those who wield their words for gain, for influence, for manipulation rather than communication. The boastful say, “Who is master over us?” The word “master” is the word adon and is one of the most common titles for God, so there may even be a hint of blasphemy here, saying “I am the master, the lord.” Lies always have an agenda and purpose, so when deception is the norm, people get hurt.

All of a sudden, God speaks. “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the LORD; I will place him in the safety for which he longs.” It’s a startling moment, because it’s the first time in the Psalms in which David hears an answer from God. And it’s fitting that happens here, in a psalm that reflects on words and their power either for good or evil. God speaks up on behalf of the poor and needy, who are disenfranchised and are groaning as a result of the words and actions of wicked people. He says that he will rise up, put the poor in a place of safety, and so fulfill their desires and longings. It’s a powerful promise that God can see through the lies to the heart. He isn’t deceived or flattered, he isn’t manipulated or fooled, and he speaks with complete authority and truth. This is why David reflects, “The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.” In metallurgy, you smelt the ore and then refine it by heating it in a crucible. The result is a purer metal, and because seven is the biblical number of perfection, David compares the words of the LORD to the purest, 100% genuine silver. You can test these flawless words over and over again, and they will always prove true. One commentator wrote, “Here is solid wealth as against empty tokens, and exact truth as against flattery, equivocation, and bombast.” This is what gives David comfort in the midst of a society that speaks falsehood: there is one who is true, and I can trust everything he says.