Help, LORD, for the Godly Man Ceases! – Psalm 12

 

Psalm 12 NKJV

Man’s Treachery and God’s Constancy

To the Chief Musician. On an eight-stringed harp. A Psalm of David.

12 Help (or Save), Lord, for the godly man ceases!
For the faithful disappear (or fail) from among the sons of men.

Dennis Edwards: It surely seems that the godly men are few and far between. Since the time of the Pandemic, however, God has raised up both men and women of truth and conviction who are standing against the forces of evil in the world. Yet, it seems the power of evil over good remains dominant. The whole world is watching the American elections to see if the hand of evil men will be stopped. Will men of character be able to rise in secular government and withstand the forces of evil that seem to be breaking forth everywhere? Will America and the world repent and resist the forces of evil, or will they succumb to them?

² They speak idly (or vanity) everyone with his neighbour;
With flattering lips and a double heart (or an inconsistent mind) they speak.

We even have modern technology filled with “likes,” where we praise one another for our vain and empty conversation while the poor and the righteous are oppressed and war and bloodshed continue all around us.

³ May the Lord cut off (or destroy) all flattering lips,
And the tongue that speaks proud (or great) things,
⁴ Who have said,
“With our tongue we will prevail;
Our lips are our own;
Who is lord over us?”

The ungodly speak proudly against God as though He cannot hear. In the description of the Antichrist, we read that he shall “cast the truth to the ground,” Daniel 8:12b. In an earlier prophecy Daniel writes, “He shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws,” Daniel 7:25a,b. Later Daniel articulates further about him saying, he “shall do according to his will; and will magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods,…Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all,” Daniel 11:36-37.

Apostle John describes him of having “a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies,” Revelation 13:4. In his epistle John writes, “He is antichrist, that denies the Father and the Son,” 1 John 2:22. Apostle Paul gives him similar attributes saying, “who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God,” 2 Thessalonians 2:4.

Apostle Jude, also uses strong words in his picture of the antichrist types. He writes that they are like, “raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever,” Jude 13. Is he condemning them to the famous “black holes” of cosmology? His description continues, “And Enoch (in the book of Enoch) also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. These murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaking great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage,” Jude 14-16.

Elsewhere, Apostle Paul describes what the antichrist world will look like, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent (or without self-control), fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away,” 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

Apostle Paul has a similar description in his letter to the Romans. He writes, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful: but became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened,” Romans 1:21. It seems as we reject God because we allow bitterness to enter our lives, we end up having our thinking corrupted. We do not start with God as the initial assumption of being, rather, we say, “I think, therefore, I am.” While God says, “I am, therefore, you think.” Solomon concluded that the conclusion of the whole matter is “Fear God, and keep His commandments,” Ecclesiastes 12:13. In Proverbs he wrote, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,” Proverbs 1:7a.

If, in our thinking, we start without God, we have no justification for why we are even able to think. Can the supposed evolutionary non-directed random process bring about conscious thought from matter? Where does the DNA, a language-based information code found in each cell of our body come from? Dr. Werner Gitt says there is no known law of science, nor any combination of processes where by information can arise from inanimate matter naturally. Information always comes from a sender mind. God has put His signature in the cell through the DNA molecule. Therefore, the best explanation for the information found in the DNA is God. God is the author of information, of our consciousness, and ability to think and reason. “In the beginning God” is the best starting place to find justification for our ability to reason and think. Our thinking becomes distorted when we reject God. It becomes darkened in its understanding and as a result we become fools.

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,” or in the King James, “from him (the evil one) that puffs at him.”

Judgment is coming for the wicked and even for God’s people. We will not escape. Each man will have to give account of himself before God.

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.

Though evil men have tried to destroy and corrupt God’s word over the centuries, God has kept it. The number of ancient transcripts, the accuracy of the copies, as seen from the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, shows plainly that God has kept His word. We can take the Bible in our hands and confidently say we have indeed the inherent Word of God.

⁸ The wicked prowl on every side,
When vileness is exalted among the sons of men, or in the King James, “when the vilest men are exalted.”

In our daily browse through the News, we are constantly bombarded by the horrific scandals committed by our leaders in government, religion, education, business, sports, and entertainment. A One World Government is coming and will ultimately be led by the vilest of men called “that Wicked,” or “vile person,” or “beast,” or “antichrist.” The world will experience 3 and ½ years of Great Tribulation under his authority and come to the brink of total destruction. Only the supernatural intervention of God Himself in the form of Jesus Christ and His heavenly host will stop Armageddon and save the planet from total annihilation.

Our best protection for the days ahead is to keep oil in our lamps, “for we know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man comes,” Matthew 25:1-13. Keeping oil in our lamps means keeping busy for God. It means staying obedient to Him. It means not falling asleep, but being watchful and sober, “putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Thessalonians 5:6-9.

Put your hand into the hand of God and He shall be for you better than a lamp and surer than a known way. “If God be for us, who can be against us,” Romans 8:31b.