Psalms Chapter 12
Showing all 8 verses for Psalms Chapter 12.
The People's Bible is written by people, for the people. Each verse below shows:
"Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. "
"Help, LORD! Faithful, godly people are disappearing - truly loyal people are vanishing from among humanity."
When it feels like you can't find one honest person around you, that loneliness is real and worth naming out loud rather than swallowing. Cry out - don't just quietly despair.
"They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. "
"Everyone talks emptily to their neighbour - flattering with their lips while hiding a divided, deceptive heart."
I'd rather you tell someone an honest, hard truth than flatter them with words you don't mean. A divided heart poisons relationships slowly, even when it looks polite on the surface.
"The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things: "
"The LORD will silence all lying, flattering speech and every tongue that boasts arrogantly."
The way you speak to people - honestly or manipulatively - matters more than you might think. I notice it, even when the people you're talking to don't.
"Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us? "
"They say, 'We'll win with our words - our lips belong to us alone; who's in charge of us?'"
What you say does answer to something beyond just your own preference - your words shape and affect other people, and that's a responsibility, not just a personal freedom.
"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. "
"'Because the poor are oppressed and the needy are groaning, I will act now,' says the LORD. 'I will put them in safety, away from those who sneer at them.'"
You don't need to justify your pain elaborately before it matters to me - your sighing, your simple groaning under hard circumstances, is enough to move me to act on your behalf.
"The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. "
"The LORD's words are completely pure - like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over."
In a world full of spin, flattery and half-truths, you can hold onto words that don't need to be double-checked for hidden motives. Let that be a relief, not a burden.
"Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. "
"You will guard them, LORD; you will protect them from this corrupt generation, forever."
You don't need your whole generation or culture to become honest and kind before you can be protected and held onto - that security doesn't depend on everyone else getting it right first.
"The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted. "
"The wicked strut around everywhere, when the most worthless people get put in positions of honour."
I don't need you to pretend the world is fair right now when it plainly isn't - you're allowed to notice and be troubled that unworthy people often get the praise and power. Naming that honestly is itself a kind of faithfulness.