WHEN THE FAITHFUL
VANISH
TEXT: Psalm 12:1-8
Psalms 12:1-8 KJV To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm
of David. Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from
among the children of men. [2]
They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and
with a double heart do they speak. [3] The
LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud
things: [4] Who have said, With our
tongue will we 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 will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in
safety from him that puffeth at him. [6]
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of
earth, purified seven times. [7]
Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this
generation for ever. [8]
The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
I.
INTRODUCTION—ORIGIN
OF THIS PSALM
A.
Where
The Psalm Came From
-This psalm is another one where there isn’t a clear
event in the life of David that is pointed to.
Some scholars seem to think that is it one where he has faced deceit and
dishonesty in his court after he was the king.
In fact from historical study, we could derive the fact that he probably
had to deal with more deception and dishonesty than we could even imagine.
-Our world today is filled with liars and false
flatterers and there are times that the righteous hardly know who to trust.
-Psalm 12 continues with the similar themes that Psalm 10
and 11 have:
·
Psalm 10—The
wicked use their words to boast and sneer.
·
Psalm 11—The
wicked use their words to tear down the moral and social formations of
society.
·
Psalm 12—The
wicked use their words on dishonesty and flattery to get what they want.
-I hope you are picking up on a pattern here through all
of these psalms. . . God is pretty serious about what I say and whether or not
I am using my words to edify or to destroy.
·
Solomon knew about
flattery (Prov. 26:28; 28:23; 29:5).
·
Daniel noted that
flattery would be a tool of the wicked world ruler (Dan. 11:32).
·
Jude defined
flattery as being something ungodly (v. 16).
-Here is where we need the holiness that comes through
instruction. . . Guard your tongue!
-One of the things that this Psalm speaks to is a
betrayal that comes through deception.
B.
An
Illustration from World
On
June 6, 1944, the US and her allies sent 150,000 troops to attack the coast of
Normandy. It is a date in history that
is commonly referred to as D-Day. While
there were many casualties, it could have been much worse than what it
was. One of the reasons it was prevented
was because of the operation that started before the attack ever began.
Operation
Fortitude was what enabled the invasion to take place. It worked on a system of spies who had
infiltrated the German military system.
The Americans, along with the British and French, managed to gain the
confidence of German spies and they became double agents. Our spies fed the Germans information that
caused them to think that we would attack in Calais and Norway rather than
Normandy. To this date it remains the
most successful but sophisticated effort at espionage our nation has ever
undertaken.
The
US and her allies used dummy tanks, ships, and armies to fool the Germans. They even used carrier pigeons that the
Germans thought belonged to them to carry information in this historic battle. Tar Robertson was in charge of the spies and
he managed to create what some call an “army of liars” to win the battle. While we can be thankful that our nation
managed to shut off the impact of a madman, it was accomplished with great
deception that in end spelled great peril for the Germans.
-That is the action that David is hinting at that takes
place in this psalm. Flattery,
deception, double-tongues and double-hearts.
II.
PSALM
12—WHEN THE FAITHFUL VANISH
-For this particular psalm, I am using John Phillips
outline from his very dependable commentary on the Psalms, Exploring the Psalms, Volume One, Psalms 1-88 (p. 92).
-Before moving into the psalm itself, we look to a word
in the superscription, Sheminith. This
word is also found in the superscription in Psalm 6 and has one other reference
in 1 Chronicles 15:21. Its literal
meaning is “the eighth division.”
-Because it is attached to 1 Chronicles we find that
there is an order of worship that Israel participated in that required of them
to hold a special place for those “righteous worshippers.” These were apparently those men who were
literally in a cut above all of the rest of those who were involved in the
worship procession and service.
-Whether we are comfortable making this analogy or not,
there are still people who fill that same role of being worshippers of a higher
calling and a higher devotion. The
memorial of worship from Mary and her alabaster box is a NT example of the
behavior that separates the classes of worshippers from the general to those
who are highly devoted to the Lord.
-Furthermore, we see that in Psalm 6 and Psalm 12 that
there are some unique connections to when we need worshippers who are a cut
above the rest of the crowd. Psalm 6
dealt with the conscience that had been so troubled by sin and the need of
confession to set it right. Now David is
making his appeal again in another situation.
-David is experiencing a moment where it seems like that
the faithful, the holy, the righteous, the elect, are nowhere to be found and
he longs for the “eighth division” of worshippers to show up. There is something very powerful that happens
when you engage that “eighth division” of worshippers. It falls into two categories that they can
usher in with their worship: Repentance
and Revival.
-Increasingly the sinful culture of society and the
sophisticated culture of the sanctuary is doing its best to squeeze the life
out of holy and devoted worshippers.
This need not be so among us! If
you have a desire to live a life of half-hearted devotion, that is a personal
choice but please don’t attempt to scorn the devotion of the “eighth division”
of true worshippers because their presence fights against sin and the vanishing
presence of the faithful!
-Just in passing, most scholars feel like this group was
made up of men. However, there was
another corresponding division that was made up of women and we see that in the
previous verse in 1 Chronicles 15:20.
They are called the Alamoth and they are mentioned in Psalm 46, which is
associated with refuge. Further it is
noted that these women were those who played the timbrels.
-The context of 1 Chronicles 15 was when the Ark was
being taken from the house of Obed-edom to go back to Jerusalem. Three groups of worshippers were involved in
escorting it back to Zion: The Levites,
the Sheminith, and the Alamoth.
-That same group still needs to be in the presence of the
modern day apostolic church, those who bear the Word and those special “eighth
division” worshippers!
A.
David’s
Appeal—Psalm 12:1-4
Psalms 12:1-4 KJV To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm
of David. Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from
among the children of men. [2]
They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and
with a double heart do they speak. [3] The
LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud
things: [4] Who have said, With our
tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
-This psalm is one that falls into the category of a
prayer. That prayer is speaking
specifically for deliverance from deception (cf. 12:2; speak vanity, flattering
lips, a double heart). That same prayer
should be prayed by all saints of the Lord.
-Much of the deception that makes its way into our minds
is through the voices from the outside that are not submitted to a Scriptural
filter nor any discerning of spirits. We
need both of those elements in our lives.
1. The Man of God is Gone from the Earth—v. 1
-Here are some questions for us to consider:
·
What would it be
like if all of the sudden those people whom you have considered as holy and
godly were to disappear from your world?
·
What would it be
like to walk into this church and see groups of ungodly and unholy people?
·
What would it be
like to walk into a house of worship where you expected to hear the songs of
Zion and instead they had been replaced with country/western, Top-40 secular
songs, rhythm and blues, or heavy metal?
·
What would it be
like to walk into this house where there was no respect for holiness standards
and there were outward displays of immodesty exposing the body, rampant jewelry
that drew attention to the person, cosmetics that altered the face of the
women, and a general uncomfortable sense of worldliness?
·
What would it be
like to walk into this church and you would expect prayer coming from the
mouths of good saints of God but instead you heard coarse, uncouth, gutter
language pouring out?
-That is some idea of what David was trying to express
with this psalm. He was looking for the
holy, he was looking for the faithful. . . but the faithful had vanished!
-Other translations render this verse in the following
manner:
Psalms 12:1 NASB Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases to be,
For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
Psalms 12:1 ESV Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone; for
the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
Psalms 12:1 Webster Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for
the faithful fail from among the children of men.
Psalms 12:1 YLT Save, Jehovah, for the saintly hath failed,
For the stedfast have ceased From the sons of men:
-David is crying out to the Lord, “Help!” Here is something we need to understand about
the world and the spirit of the age; its goal has always been to free this
world of influence of the righteous.
That is a common thread all the way through the Scriptures.
-On the other hand we have to know that the godly, those
who had been faithful to the Lord, were not out of the picture. God will always have a remnant of the
faithful who are devoted to Him.
-Elijah would come along about 150 years later and would
have the same difficulty:
1 Kings 19:10 KJV And he said, I have been very jealous for the
LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant,
thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I
only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
-The Lord responded back to him:
1 Kings 19:18 KJV Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel,
all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not
kissed him.
-There are times that we can have the same mentality and
think the faithful have vanished but God always has someone who is willing to
make the challenging commitments and do His will.
-But David felt like the man of God had left the
earth.
2. The Man of Guile is Great on the Earth—v.
2-4
-Just like he thought the man of God had left. . . He
knew the man of guile was great on the earth.
All of this we gather from David’s description of these people.
-The wicked disobey God with their tongues. They gain power through flattery, deception,
and wicked schemes.
Proverbs 26:24-26 KJV He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and
layeth up deceit within him; [25]
When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations
in his heart. [26] Whose hatred is covered
by deceit, his wickedness shall be shewed before the whole congregation.
-James also painted a picture of what these people look
like too:
James 3:10-12 KJV Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and
cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. [11] Doth a fountain send forth at the same
place sweet water and bitter? [12] Can
the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no
fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
-They use their tongues to work with guile, their tongues
are sly, their words are shrewd, and there is a wiliness about the way they
live.
-The enemies of the righteous are presented in a number
of ways throughout the psalms:
·
Power
·
Greed
·
Injustice
·
Jealousy
·
Opportunists
-I wondered what David could have had specifically in his
mind when he was writing this psalm:
·
He could have been
thinking of the deadliness of Doeg and the murdered priests of Nob (1 Sam.
21-22).
·
He could have been
thinking of the men of Ziph and Keilah who betrayed him into the hand of Saul
(1 Sam. 23).
·
He could have been
thinking of the outlaws surrounding him in the cave of Adullam (1 Sam. 22).
-David was so overcome that he had no spiritual energy
left in the tank. He had lost his
strength to fight. . . in Psalm 11, the encouragement was to stay and fight. .
. but in Psalm 12 that was all gone. All
that was left in him was a pleading sense of the Spirit. . . Help!, he cries
out.
-Where will a church drift to when the anchors of godly
and righteous people are no longer there?
That is a chilling question to consider. . . Although you must never
forget that God will have a remnant
to serve him!
-I can remember years ago hearing a message preached by
Pastor Phil White called The Remnant of
His Heritage. Brother Ken Raggio and
I have had countless conversations over the last 20 years about God having a
remnant group of apostolic believers no matter how difficult times may seem for
the American church.
-There are times when it appears that holiness has fallen
on hard times and difficult days, but it is still the order of the day.
-David is noting that the guile of these men are all over
the earth. But for all of their flattery
and deception that pours off of their tongue and through their lips, the Lord
has a remedy for it. His remedy is that
he will cut off the flattering lips and proud tongues.
B.
David’s
Assurance—Psalm 12:5-6
Psalms 12:5-6 KJV For the oppression of the poor, for the
sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in
safety from him that puffeth at him. [6]
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of
earth, purified seven times.
-No matter how bad it looked for David, the Lord gave him
some assurance that was great and it was guaranteed.
1. Its Greatness—v. 5
-Its greatness was defined by his prayer. . . Help!
-We find in verse 5 the power of prayer. These poor and needy have cried out to the
Lord in their distress.
Chrysostom—Fear
ye, whosever ye be, that do wrong the poor; you have power and wealth, and the
favor of the judges, but they have the strongest weapons of all, sighings and
groanings, which fetch help from heaven for them. These weapons dig down houses, throw up
foundations, overthrow whole nations.
-Put that into a spiritual context and think of the
enemies that oppose the church in the waning hours of this dispensation:
·
Liberalism
·
Secularism
·
Pluralism
·
Materialism
·
Lukewarm
·
Prayerless
·
Swimming in
spiritual mediocrity
·
Great lack of
commitment
-All of those enemies can put saints on their knees in
pleading prayer and God can send a revival that will tear down the houses of
the enemy, uproot the foundations, and obliterate spiritual strongholds.
-Oppressed and sighing. . . That sums up the existence of
some preachers and saints in this hour but it all began to turn when they cried
out for the Lord to help them.
2. Its Guarantee—v. 6
-That assurance was great but it was also guaranteed. . .
It was great because it responded to prayer but it was guaranteed because it
was the Word of the Lord.
-There is a huge contrast between the words of the Lord
versus the words of the wicked (v. 6-7).
In verse 6, the words of the Lord are pure, tried, and purified. Value that Word of the Lord you have in your
Bible.
-Truth is always the antidote for deception. The enemies of David were deceivers. Deception is one of the tools of the trade
for the devil in the end times. The
parable of the wheat and the tares is a graphic picture the Lord used in
Matthew 13 to demonstrate it.
-The seed, which implies life, was sown by the devil and
his workers among the wheat. Some may
ask why the Lord does not start pulling out the dangerous tares from His
wheat. He does not because it is not
time yet. The devil is limited because
he can’t tear up the wheat because God will not let him.
-So the devil will do his best to tell people that the
real wheat is not really the wheat. But
the truth is this, the wheat know what the wheat really is. . . furthermore
they know what the tares are. . . If you have the Holy Ghost and a commitment
to the Lord and His Word, it will be hard for you to be deceived.
Evangelist Martyn Ballestero
has a very good blog that I read on a regular basis. Back on November 9, 2014 he wrote an article,
“You Say You Want to Go to Heaven? I’m
Not Really Convinced.” He then gave a
summary of what the tares of this day look like:
He noted that those who are
apostolic Pentecostal say they want to go to heaven but their actions betray
their words. Then he starts noting the
characteristics of their lifestyle.
·
They miss church.
·
They love sports
more than they love God.
·
They don’t have a
teachable spirit.
·
They don’t pay their
tithes.
·
Their prayer life is
dead.
·
They don’t worship
anymore.
·
They dress like the
world.
·
They date sinners.
·
They look at someone
else and they are married.
·
Their jobs keep them
out of church.
·
They have become hateful.
·
They have become
rebellious.
·
They are in love
with Hollywood.
·
They never come to
the altar anymore.
·
They say, “God knows
my heart, I don’t have to convince a preacher!”
He concludes with. . . If you
are going to make it to heaven, you have to change. . .
-If ever we needed a passion and hunger for the Word of
the Lord, it is in these days that we are living in now! The Word can pull out the deception the devil
throws in your direction! In the New
Testament, the word “deception” occurs nineteen times, always in connection
with the devil and his work.
-Our assurance in our Lord is guaranteed by His Word. . .
Pure. . . Tried. . . Effective! There
should be nothing more valuable to me than the Word of the Lord.
C.
David’s
Armor—Psalm 12:7-8
Psalms 12:7-8 KJV Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt
preserve them from this generation for ever.
[8] The wicked walk on every side, when the
vilest men are exalted.
1. The Nature of It—v. 7
-Here is a portion of David’s armor, he is kept. . .
preserved forever. Despite the fact that
the saints of God have been marked, scorned, and stigmatized all throughout
history, the Lord will honor them forever!
-When we put on the armor of God, there is great security
that comes from it.
2. The Need for It—v. 8
-Why would we have need of this armor, this keeping of
the Lord? Because there are some
commentators (Samuel Terrien, etc.) who suggest that this psalm is one that
stands against the astrologers, magicians, and sorcerers of the false religions
of idolatry around David.
-Let them talk. . . Let them strut about. . . Let them be
exalted but keep your armor on by the Spirit!
III.
CONCLUSION—THE
FAITHFUL HAVEN’T VANISHED!
-If there is a closing note of encouragement, it would be
this: The faithful have not
vanished! Under fire. . . yes! Sometimes overwhelmed. . . yes! But they have never vanished and they will
extend their days into eternity.
-It’s the Church Triumphant!
Philip Harrelson
November 28, 2014
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