Psalm 12

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Hey, hey, welcome to Coffee and Devotions. It is Thursday morning. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we get into God's word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2020, we'll make it, 2021, we'll make it through all of the wisdom literature. Well, why don't we go ahead and have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Two things real quick before we do that, I guess.
We got a new cup. This is kind of fun. It's actually got the branding on it. But also, so the church logo and stuff. But anyways, the other thing is, how did you like those Psalms to begin with? We're trying a new system and trying to make it more consistent for you. So hopefully that was nice for you to be able to hear Psalm 113.
Let's go ahead and have some coffee and we'll pray. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you so much for what a blessing it is to get to be in your word. We thank you that your word is pure and that you are the one who is sturdy and reliable in our lives. Pray now that you would let us believe these words in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, why don't we go ahead and turn over now to God's word. Let's look at the screen here. Psalm 12. to the chief musician on an eight-stringed harp a psalm of David. Help! Lord!
For the godly man ceases! for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak idly, every one with his neighbor, with flattering lips and a double tongue 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 from which he yearns. The word of the Lord, 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. The wicked prowl on every side when vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
Oh, we need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to these words here? So, A, what is this about? Well, this is a compare and contrast, right? Did you ever have to do those when you were in a writing class, have to write a compare and contrast story or compare and contrast essay?
David here is saying that there are the wicked, And they don't think anybody is Lord over their tongues. They don't think anybody is Lord over their mouths. What do they say in verse four? With our tongue, we will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? They just think that there's no accountability for the things that they say. But the scriptures say quite the opposite, right? God will judge us for even every idle word which we speak.
Man, how many times do, well, I'm jumping into calling here, but that's fine. How many times do we, say things quickly, not even thinking, biting things, harsh things, critical things, things that tear other people down. Man, how often do we act like this? Like our lips are our own and there's no Lord over what we say, right? The book of James has a whole section on controlling the tongue. We'll get there in a second. Right?
So, uh, the Lord speaks here in verse 5, though. 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. It is God who will arise. It is God who is the protector of the oppressed, of the orphan, of the widow. It is God who hears their cries, and it is God who's going to do something about it. And here, verses six through seven, it tells us about God's Word.
God's Word is pure words. God's Word is reliable. It's tested and pure. There's not a bunch of impurity mixed into God's Word. No, it's like silver tried in a furnace seven times, completely pure, no dross in it. It's pure silver. Reliable, trustworthy, and exactly what it says is what it means. So we need to ask ourselves, what's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I think in my Bible, I am going to highlight verses six and seven. All right, verse six and seven. I also think it's interesting here in verse seven.
You shall keep them, O Lord. You shall preserve them from this generation forever. David is writing this thousands and thousands and thousands of years ago, and how wonderful is it that we have these words now? that we have these words that God has preserved in incredible and remarkable ways. I mean, at a click of a button here, literally, I'm gonna do this just to show you, at a click of a button here, not only are we able to pull up the English, but we're even able to pull up the Hebrew. We live in such an age where we can pull up the original languages for this. Not just that, but we could even pull up, not just the Hebrew for it, but we could even pull up the Greek translation for this psalm from the first century. This is an amazing blessing that God has done. He has kept pure His Word for all generations. What a beautiful blessing we have. But we need to ask ourselves, okay, what are we called to do in response to this? There are big theological truths that are wonderful about God preserving His Word, but what does this look like in your life? Do you live your life knowing that God is the one who wants to be glorified in how you speak.
That if the Spirit is in you, you have a spirit of self-control, and when you blow up, well, you don't have to blow up. But even when you do get angry, you don't have to sin. There's a Lord over your tongue. His name is Jesus Christ, and His Spirit is in you, and if He is in you, You can control that ship of your mouth. The book of James has a lot to say about the tongue. And if you can control your tongue, you can control anything. The tongue is that small rudder that steers an entire ship, or a bit in a horse's mouth, that little piece of metal going across his mouth steers the whole horse. Do you have control over your own tongue? Maybe you've been struggling with this. Will you cry out to God? that he might fill your heart and your mouth with words that are good for necessary edification, that you might impart grace to the hearers, that you might build others up with your words instead of tearing them down.
Why don't we pray for that now? Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We pray, knowing that you are our Lord, that you have kept your word pure Lord, we pray that you would cleanse our mouths. Lord, we pray that you would so work in our hearts that out of the depths of the recesses of our hearts would not spew forth sewage and divisive words that tear others down. But Lord, you would give us words to speak that are fitting to the occasion, ready to impart grace, and ready to bring you glory.
Please do this work. It's only by your spirit that it can be done. In Jesus's name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May He fill you with peace, and may you be a blessing to others as you speak words of grace. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.