Psalm 12

Psalm 12

Man’s Treachery and God’s Constancy

To the Chief Musician. On An Eight-Stringed Harp. A Psalm of David.

1 Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases!

For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

2 They speak idly everyone with his neighbor;

With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,

And the tongue that speaks proud things,

4 Who have said,

“With our tongue we will prevail;

Our lips are our own;

Who is lord over us?”

5 “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.”

6 The words of the Lord are pure words,

Like silver tried in a furnace of earth,

Purified seven times.

7 You shall keep them, O Lord,

You shall preserve them from this generation forever.

8 The wicked prowl on every side,

When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.

 The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ps 12.