December 28
“Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, and 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?’ ‘For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now I will arise,’ says the Lord; ‘I will set him in the safety for which he yearns,’” Psalm 12:1-5.
In this psalm, David is praying for the small company of the children of God who are under attack by a boastful multitude of ungodly people. He cries out, “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.” With two words, “ceases” and “disappear,” the psalmist refers to a falling away from faith and trust in the true God.
A falling away from the saving faith is something that has happened frequently in the history of the Christian Church. In our thoughts, we are taken back to a time during the public ministry of the Lord Jesus. Jesus spoke of Himself, saying, “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst,” John 6:35. Later, He elaborated on these words at length, and said, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him,” John 6:56. Contrary to the false teachings of some religious leaders, Jesus was not referring to the Lord’s Supper, which He instituted at a later time.
However, after hearing what Jesus said, many of His followers complained, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” John 6:60. Later, John reports, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more,” John 6:66. They fell from the faith in following Him in such huge numbers that Jesus turned to the Twelve and confronted them with the searching question, “Do you also want to go away?” and Simon Peter responded with that beautiful confession of faith, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” John 6:67-69.
As the psalmist writes, the ungodly think that they are in charge and say, “With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” Because the ungodly use their lips to flatter and speak a lot of nice-sounding nonsense in an effort to persuade people to fall from the saving faith, Christians today, like the psalmist, call upon God to intervene: “Help, Lord! . . . Cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things.”
The Lord answers to the cry of the Christian: “‘For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now I will arise,’ says the Lord; ‘I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.’” The true God comes to the cry of our spiritual yearning. God promises to keep us in the faith. “You are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation,” 1 Peter 1:5. We have Jesus’ personal promise, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand,” John 10:27-28. Continue in the faith in Jesus as the Son of God and your only Savior from sin, death, and the devil.
“In Thine arms I rest me;
Foes who would molest me
Cannot reach me here.
Tho’ the earth be shaking,
Ev’ry heart be quaking,
Jesus calms my fear.
Lightnings flash and thunders crash;
Yet, tho’ sin and hell assail me,
Jesus will not fail me.” Amen.