“The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace
of earth, purified seven times. You
shall keep them, O LORD, You shall preserve them from this generation forever.”
In this psalm, David expresses his frustration with the
words of man around him. He cries out to
God for help “for the godly man
ceases! For the faithful disappear from
among the sons of men.” (Psalm 12:1)
When godly men disappear, their replacement is always unfortunate. David and his men were warriors to be
reckoned with, yet this psalm shows the difficulty in dealing with people who
refuse to speak the truth. David says
they “speak idly” and “with flattering lips and a double heart”
(Psalm 12:2). “We can easily imagine a
vicious whispering campaign against David among those who wanted to gain favor
with the misguided king. The essence of
flattering lips is that they say what people want to hear. There are
many such talkers today, even within the church; those who know the right
answer for every occasion, but speak with no honesty or transparency of heart.
They constantly speak what people hope to hear or what is assumed to be proper
instead of their true thoughts, feelings, and deeds.” (David Guzik) As to the ‘double heart’: “The original is, ‘A heart and a heart:’ one
for the church, another for the change; one for Sundays, another for
working days; one for the king, another for the pope. A man without a heart is
a wonder, but a man with two hearts is a monster.” (Thomas Adams, cited in Charles
Spurgeon)
The psalm continues to reveal the escalating arrogance of
man’s words: “the tongue that speaks
proud things, who have said, “with our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our
own; who is lord over us?”” (Psalm 12:3-4) As we take note of the idle words of man, as
well as man’s willfully false and maligning words, then the purity and honesty
of God’s Word becomes more precious to us.
Or it should. “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. 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.” (Charles Spurgeon)
We are responsible for our words. As a child of God, our lips are NOT our own
since we are not our own. We have
surrendered to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We are His.
We may be frustrated by the double-talk of calling evil good and good
evil, of the intolerant demanding tolerance, of the boasting from those who
are all talk and no real accomplishment, and of those who flatter the poor
while deceiving them from the truth.
These are words of man. Whether
we hear them from believers or unbelievers, they frustrate us because they are
not truth. Dear brothers and sisters,
let us not waste our energy on frustration but let us delve deeper into the
pure words of God. These are words of
truth, wisdom, promise, sin, grace, and of salvation. God cannot lie. Rest assured that His Word will be fulfilled
and our Righteous King will someday reign this world. “That
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow; of those in heaven, and of those on
earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians
2:10-11) It is precisely for these times
of frustration that God wrote and preserved His Holy Word for all these
years. Just for you and just for
now. Open your Bible, let the Holy
Spirit lead you to one of the promises of God that you need for this
moment.
While we are to “contend
earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints,”
(Jude 3), be certain that our Creator, in due time, will contend with the idle,
flattering, proud and vile words of man.
May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
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