Psalm 12 - Purified Seven Times

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. We are in Psalm 12 today. And this Psalm is written with the inscription, for the music director, upon an eight-stringed lyre, a psalm of David.

So he says, this is the instrument that would go best with this particular song. If any of you want to buy me an eight-stringed lyre, and that's L-Y-R-E. I don't know if they even exist anymore.

I've seen Brandon Lake has a very special mandolin guitar combination thing. If you look up his video, praise you anywhere. I think it's on the Essential Worship YouTube channel.

I might link to it in the comments, actually, or link it on to the Facebook post, all that. Praise you anywhere. He's got this really cool thing.

I could see that kind of instrument being what David is talking about here. So this Psalm is one... Growing up, I had heard two verses from this Psalm.

It was completely taken out of context for the Psalm. So we're going to dive into it today and see what God has for us. Why is this Psalm of David written for the music director with this particular instrument?

What's special about it? Let's see. Help, Yahweh, for the godly person has come to an end, for the faithful have disappeared from the sons of mankind.

Here he's saying, God, like we're going extinct. Like there's no more of us, which is funny. This is hyperbolic because David's here and he's writing and he's calling on God.

So the godly people have not come to an end and the faithful have not disappeared. David is still there and there are plenty of other people. We all know David wasn't the last great bastion of righteousness, that he had some large flaws as well.

Verse number two, he talks about what the rest of mankind is doing in this time of dire need, that it seems like all of the godly are evaporating. They're all leaving. So the rest of mankind, verse two, they speak lies to one another.

They speak with flattering lips and a double heart. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things, who have said, with our own tongue we will prevail. Our lips are our own.

Who is Lord over us? So here's the words of the wicked, that they have flattering lips. We should always be careful of when people are particularly complimentary in kind of an odd way to our face.

Like, oh, yeah, yeah, that person, they say a lot of great things when they're around me, but I don't know that they really like love me.

Or if you see someone that's doing that to maybe a boss, where there's just a lot of flattery taking place, but it's to cover up a evil heart.

And you can read a lot about that in the Book of Proverbs of we're supposed to beware the person that flatters with their lips, that they're trying to curry favor through words.

They're not trying to bless others with their words of, hey, I genuinely want you to feel good as a result of what I'm saying to you. Like, I want to commend you. I want to compliment you.

I want to build you up. That's one thing. Flattery is, I want you to think better of me because of the words that I have given to you.

They flatter with their lips and they have a double heart. That is, they're not actually genuinely on your side. They're on their own side.

And so they're attempting to work kind of both ends. He says, may the Lord, may Yahweh cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things, who their proclamation is that their tongue, their words, their oratory skills will prevail.

It will make them great. They will not become great because of God. They will become great because they keep saying words.

So what's God's reaction to this? There's this evil. There's these flatterers.

There's these ones that are trying to gain authority and notoriety and victory through their speech. And they say there is no Lord over us.

Verse number five, God says this, because of the devastation of the poor, because of the groaning of the needy, now I will arise, says Yahweh. I will put him in the safety for which he longs.

Here's God's promise that as He looks at those that are godly and faithful, He sees that they are poor and they are needy, that they are devastated, that they are groaning, that they need safety, that they need help.

May we never have a heart that would say. I despise poor people.

I look at someone that is only making this much money, and I think, oh man, you're just real low on the totem pole, and you're not really worth much to society, and you're not really that great. That's a very unbiblical, ungodly mindset to have.

Well, it's certainly true as we look at the Book of Proverbs that our own laziness can cause us to fall into desperate times and can lead to huge consequences.

It's not an excuse then for us to ignore how God speaks about the poor, about how God tells us to take care of those that are needy.

And I think here, if this was true for maybe the physically needy, those that needed maybe clothing or food or shelter, I think it's also true for those that are spiritually needy, that we would care for those that are spiritually devastated,

spiritually groaning, crying out for hope. And we have Jesus and we can share the Gospel with others, that we know people that are going through immense relational struggles and hurts. And they need Jesus. They need the Gospel.

They need to know how God can make a difference in their life. They need to know that He loves them and He has a plan for them.

For those that are groaning, that they don't really know what their purpose is, that they don't feel loved, they don't feel like there is any peace or any hope that God would move into their life and that they would know Christ's love for them, that

they have a mission and a purpose in life, that they have a new family in those that have accepted Jesus, that we ought to care for those that are poor and needy, not just physically, though we should do that in accordance with God's Word, but we

should care for those that are spiritually needy as well. And God says, hey, I'm going to arise. I'm going to put them in safety. And then David says this about what God has said.

He says the words of Yahweh are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, filtered seven times.

This verse here is speaking of when you would have silver, you would heat it up to an incredibly hot temperature, and all of the impurities that were in the silver would rise to the top, and you would scrape it off, and then you would let it go down

again, and then you would heat it up, and all of the impurities would rise to the top, and you would take all of that off. And on the seventh time you did it, here's seventh kind of number of completion or perfection.

It's the most pure that it possibly could be. It's not that God's Word underwent seven revisions, and it wasn't completely pure until the seventh time that His Word was refined.

It's saying God's Words are like His promises here, what He has said to the poor and needy. What He promised them is as pure, as trustworthy, as valuable as the purest of silver. That's what's being communicated.

And then David says this, You, Yahweh, will keep them. You will protect them. You will put those individuals in safety.

You will protect him from this generation forever. He says you are going to save these people, and they are going to be yours forever.

And that's the same promise that we have, that we are not just gods for a couple decades, or a hundred years, or a thousand years, or a million years. We are gods forever if we know him as our Savior.

He is our wonderful Savior forever, and love that truth. Verse number eight. He says, The wicked strut about on every side when vileness is exalted among the sons of mankind.

So here it's kind of positioned against the beginning verse. Help, Lord, for the godly person has come to an end. So there's less and less godly people.

And then he says, For the faithful have disappeared from the sons of mankind. Then at the end, the wicked strut about on every side. There's more and more wicked when vileness is exalted among the sons of mankind.

So our goal should be, we want to be those that are godly, that are faithful. How do we become godly and faithful? How do we go through a life in which our natural bent is to become more wicked, is to become more vile?

How do we stand? It's because God will protect us. God will keep us safe.

God will put us in safety. That we rely on Him for our righteousness. That we don't say, OK, I just know I'm going to be righteous for all of this time.

I think of Peter, where Jesus is like, Hey, all of you are going to betray me. And Peter then goes, No, Lord, even if every single one of these bozos betrays you, I would never betray you.

And then Jesus goes, All right, before the rooster crows twice, you're going to deny me three times.

And that's truthfully what happened, that we shouldn't be those that strut about proclaiming our own righteousness, but let us continually call on God, who is our perfect righteousness.

I think as we look at this Psalm, at this chapter, that we can glean such comfort from the fact that God has promised to secure us, to save us, to keep us in His love. And so in our life, when we worry, God, have I done too much?

Am I now not useful for you? Am I not worthy of being loved any longer by you? I know you did love me, but did I unearn that love?

The truth is no. You didn't earn His love, and so you can't unearn His love. If you are God's, He will keep you forever.

It's what's called the perseverance of the saints, a true eternal security. I think of Philippians 1.6, that the one who began a good work, and you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.

So if God's going to keep us to the end, that there will never be a time where He allows us to finally and forever kind of fall away. If we are His, He's promised to continue that work in us until the day of redemption.

Anything of Ephesians 1, I think it's verse 13. It talks about that, that the Holy Spirit is the seal of God on us until the day of redemption. So hope that'd be an encouragement to you today.

God loves you. He has secured you. He has promised to keep you safe, and his promise is as good as the best, the finest, the most pure silver.

It's that valuable, and he's promised it to you.

So in a world where there can be lots of wicked people on every side and where the sons of mankind exult vileness, they glorify what is in opposition to God, may we be those that turn to him, that attempt to be faithful to him, that call on him to

rescue us, to protect us, to keep us safe. I think of even the Lord's Prayer. Deliver us from evil. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

And it's his kingdom and glory that we are about. And may we have that goal in our everyday life. Thanks for tuning in today.

Psalm 13 is Tomorrow, which I haven't studied Psalm 13 at length yet. I do know a great song written from Psalm 13 that I'll share with that episode as well. But looking forward to diving into that chapter tomorrow with you.

Thank you.