MEDITATION
MEDITATION
“Let the words of my mouth,
and the meditation of my heart,
be acceptable in thy sight,
O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.”
(Psalm 19.14)
My meditations of him will be sweet (Psalm 104.34)
archive of past meditations can be found below the latest meditations
psalm 13 meditation 3
psalm 13.5
benediction/ assurance
5But I have placed my trust in your unwavering devotion.
Most certainly I will fully rejoice in your deliverance.
I fully intend to sing of YHWH
when He has restored me.
As he was in Psalms 3-7, 11, and 12, and as he and all the world’s vulnerable were in Psalms 9 and 10, in Psalm 13 the Psalmist is under the threat of attack by those who are enemies. The Psalmist has boldly and repeatedly expressed his confusion and doubt over God’s absence.
“How long, YHWH? Will You always ignore me?
How long will You conceal Yourself from me?
How long must I suffer deep doubt,
deeply grieving day in and day out?
How long will my enemy continue to have the advantage over me?”
He has pleaded for God’s help and deliverance.
“Pay attention! Respond to me, YHWH, my God.
Brighten my eyes, lest I sleep death’s sleep,
lest my enemy can boast, “I’ve defeated him!”
lest my adversaries exalt because I succumb.”
The Psalmist’s plight is most dangerous and his feelings most desperate. But into this darkness a light shines. God’s “unwavering devotion” pierces the darkness of the dangers and desperation. The Psalmist fixes his sight on this light, on God’s unwavering devotion.” He intends to remain fixed on it, believing that God will act consistent with his unwavering devotion. He will yet know the joy of God’s deliverance.
And like so many others who have experienced the joyful deliverance of God’s unwavering devotion, he will not be silent. He will sing of God. He will sing aloud. He will, as Oliver Cowdery was counseled “not suppose that he can say enough in my cause” but “at all times, and in all pleas, he shall open his mouth and declare [good news] as with the voice of a trump, both day and night.” (DC 24.10, 12).
The Psalmist will want God to hear his song, of course. But he will want others to hear is song. He will want others to learn from his song. He will want others to learn to put their faith in God and in his unwavering devotion—“gospel,” good news indeed.
Millennia later, that Oliver Cowdery was promised that as he opened his mouth without reserve God would “give unto him strength such as is not known among men.” (DC 24.12). The strength of the Psalmist’s voice, the strength of the Psalmist’s song as carried through the millennia. I have heard it. It has born fruit in me. May his song bear fruit in you too!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
5But I have placed my trust in your unwavering devotion.
Most certainly I will fully rejoice in your deliverance.
I fully intend to sing of YHWH
when He has restored me.
As he was in Psalms 3-7, 11, and 12, and as he and all the world’s vulnerable were in Psalms 9 and 10, in Psalm 13 the Psalmist is under the threat of attack by those who are enemies. The Psalmist has boldly and repeatedly expressed his confusion and doubt over God’s absence.
“How long, YHWH? Will You always ignore me?
How long will You conceal Yourself from me?
How long must I suffer deep doubt,
deeply grieving day in and day out?
How long will my enemy continue to have the advantage over me?”
He has pleaded for God’s help and deliverance.
“Pay attention! Respond to me, YHWH, my God.
Brighten my eyes, lest I sleep death’s sleep,
lest my enemy can boast, “I’ve defeated him!”
lest my adversaries exalt because I succumb.”
The Psalmist’s plight is most dangerous and his feelings most desperate. But into this darkness a light shines. God’s “unwavering devotion” pierces the darkness of the dangers and desperation. The Psalmist fixes his sight on this light, on God’s unwavering devotion.” He intends to remain fixed on it, believing that God will act consistent with his unwavering devotion. He will yet know the joy of God’s deliverance.
And like so many others who have experienced the joyful deliverance of God’s unwavering devotion, he will not be silent. He will sing of God. He will sing aloud. He will, as Oliver Cowdery was counseled “not suppose that he can say enough in my cause” but “at all times, and in all pleas, he shall open his mouth and declare [good news] as with the voice of a trump, both day and night.” (DC 24.10, 12).
The Psalmist will want God to hear his song, of course. But he will want others to hear is song. He will want others to learn from his song. He will want others to learn to put their faith in God and in his unwavering devotion—“gospel,” good news indeed.
Millennia later, that Oliver Cowdery was promised that as he opened his mouth without reserve God would “give unto him strength such as is not known among men.” (DC 24.12). The strength of the Psalmist’s voice, the strength of the Psalmist’s song as carried through the millennia. I have heard it. It has born fruit in me. May his song bear fruit in you too!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
psalm 13 meditation 2
psalm 13.3-4
plea
3Pay attention! Respond to me, YHWH, my God.
Brighten my eyes, lest I sleep death’s sleep,
4lest my enemy can boast, “I’ve defeated him!”
lest my adversaries exalt because I succumb (author’s translation).
Psalm 13 began with a faithful expression of doubt and bold questioning, even challenging of God.
“How long, YHWH? Will You always ignore me?
How long will You conceal Yourself from me?
How long must I suffer deep doubt,
deeply grieving day in and day out?
How long will my enemy continue to have the advantage over me?” (author’s translation)
The Psalmist follows up this quartet of bold and faithful questions with three pleas—tripartite pleas for divine assistance are common in the Psalter. The Psalmist’s pleas that God “pay attention,” “respond,” and “enliven” him are surely in response to his earlier expressed feelings that God has ignored him and made Himself scarce, causing doubt to enter his mind. The tripartite pleas also give us insight into the intensity of the Psalmist’s need. His suffering is a matter of life and death.
The potential death is not a passive one—one caused, for example, by illness. Nor should we understand the death to be a reflection of poetic metaphor. The death that threatens the Psalmist is not an accident of mortality. It is real and violent. It is a death that the Psalmist’s enemies have actively planned and toward which they have worked. We have seen this before.
In Psalm 5, the Psalmist was charged with wrongdoing. His accusers’ “throat is an open grave” (vs. 9). The danger the accusations pose for the Psalmist were no less real for the poetic imagery in which they are expressed. The accusations brought against the Psalmist were intended to do more than undermine his place in society. They were intended to end his life. The Psalmist’s enemies intend to
“catch me, and stomp my life into the underworld;
establish my abode in death” (7.5).
All too aware of his enemies’ intentions, the Psalmist reminds God,
“in death there is no awareness of you.
Who praises you in še’ôl?” (6.5)
The Psalmist’s enemies have carried out their deathly plans far enough that he must plead
“respond to the mistreatment perpetrated by those who oppose me,
raising me from death’s door” (9.13).
In the 10th Psalm, the Psalmist comes to the realization that the threats he faces face all the world’s vulnerable people. His use of metaphor to represent the threat is intense.
“They sit in ambush outside villages.
From concealed places they slay the innocent;
their eyes peer out at the vulnerable.
Like a lion, they lie in wait from a concealed place in the brush.
They lie in ambush to seize the downtrodden.
They seize the downtrodden, dragging him into their lair.
They crouch low, hunch down,
and fall upon the bones of the vulnerable” (Ps. 10.8-10).
The threat against the Psalmist and his vulnerable brothers and sisters worldwide is likened to that a lion presents. Of course, the threat can be metaphorical for judicial attacks. It can be metaphorical for economic attacks. Judicial and economic threats against the vulnerable can end in reputational and financial ruin. But they can also end in death. Poor, vulnerable people do die because of judicial and economic injustice. Lifespans are shortened by society’s immorality. We try to ignore this reality. The reality of a kind of “passive murder.” But our ignoring the reality only deepens our crime and intensifies the consequences.
Adding to the tragedy is that those who attack, causing suffering and even death, do not have a moment’s second thought. They feel no guilt. Quite the opposite. They are boastful: “I’ve defeated him!” They are exultant when their prey succumbs to their violence.
As we watch such scenes play out before our eyes, we cry out, and that repeatedly. We not only cry out, “How long?” We also plead that God pay attention and respond. That he put an end to those who feel justified, rewarded, and happy when others suffer at their hands.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
3Pay attention! Respond to me, YHWH, my God.
Brighten my eyes, lest I sleep death’s sleep,
4lest my enemy can boast, “I’ve defeated him!”
lest my adversaries exalt because I succumb (author’s translation).
Psalm 13 began with a faithful expression of doubt and bold questioning, even challenging of God.
“How long, YHWH? Will You always ignore me?
How long will You conceal Yourself from me?
How long must I suffer deep doubt,
deeply grieving day in and day out?
How long will my enemy continue to have the advantage over me?” (author’s translation)
The Psalmist follows up this quartet of bold and faithful questions with three pleas—tripartite pleas for divine assistance are common in the Psalter. The Psalmist’s pleas that God “pay attention,” “respond,” and “enliven” him are surely in response to his earlier expressed feelings that God has ignored him and made Himself scarce, causing doubt to enter his mind. The tripartite pleas also give us insight into the intensity of the Psalmist’s need. His suffering is a matter of life and death.
The potential death is not a passive one—one caused, for example, by illness. Nor should we understand the death to be a reflection of poetic metaphor. The death that threatens the Psalmist is not an accident of mortality. It is real and violent. It is a death that the Psalmist’s enemies have actively planned and toward which they have worked. We have seen this before.
In Psalm 5, the Psalmist was charged with wrongdoing. His accusers’ “throat is an open grave” (vs. 9). The danger the accusations pose for the Psalmist were no less real for the poetic imagery in which they are expressed. The accusations brought against the Psalmist were intended to do more than undermine his place in society. They were intended to end his life. The Psalmist’s enemies intend to
“catch me, and stomp my life into the underworld;
establish my abode in death” (7.5).
All too aware of his enemies’ intentions, the Psalmist reminds God,
“in death there is no awareness of you.
Who praises you in še’ôl?” (6.5)
The Psalmist’s enemies have carried out their deathly plans far enough that he must plead
“respond to the mistreatment perpetrated by those who oppose me,
raising me from death’s door” (9.13).
In the 10th Psalm, the Psalmist comes to the realization that the threats he faces face all the world’s vulnerable people. His use of metaphor to represent the threat is intense.
“They sit in ambush outside villages.
From concealed places they slay the innocent;
their eyes peer out at the vulnerable.
Like a lion, they lie in wait from a concealed place in the brush.
They lie in ambush to seize the downtrodden.
They seize the downtrodden, dragging him into their lair.
They crouch low, hunch down,
and fall upon the bones of the vulnerable” (Ps. 10.8-10).
The threat against the Psalmist and his vulnerable brothers and sisters worldwide is likened to that a lion presents. Of course, the threat can be metaphorical for judicial attacks. It can be metaphorical for economic attacks. Judicial and economic threats against the vulnerable can end in reputational and financial ruin. But they can also end in death. Poor, vulnerable people do die because of judicial and economic injustice. Lifespans are shortened by society’s immorality. We try to ignore this reality. The reality of a kind of “passive murder.” But our ignoring the reality only deepens our crime and intensifies the consequences.
Adding to the tragedy is that those who attack, causing suffering and even death, do not have a moment’s second thought. They feel no guilt. Quite the opposite. They are boastful: “I’ve defeated him!” They are exultant when their prey succumbs to their violence.
As we watch such scenes play out before our eyes, we cry out, and that repeatedly. We not only cry out, “How long?” We also plead that God pay attention and respond. That he put an end to those who feel justified, rewarded, and happy when others suffer at their hands.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
psalm 13 meditation 1
psalm 13.1-2
invocation/ complaint
1How long, YHWH? Will You always ignore me?
How long will You conceal Yourself from me?
2How long must I suffer deep doubt,
deeply grieving day in and day out?
How long will my enemy continue to have the advantage over me? (author’s translation)
In commenting on Psalms 3-7, we treated them as if they all addressed the same or a similar circumstance in which the Psalmist was the victim of character assassination and charges of guilt—guilt such as separated him from God and His assistance. Throughout, the Psalmist maintained his innocence and his faith in God’s help. After a kind of apotheosis in Psalm 8, in which the Psalmist adopts a more global view, the Psalmist recognizes in Psalms 9 and 10 (one psalm) that enemies such as he had were a global problem. Those whom the Psalmist calls “malevolently immoral” attack all the planet’s vulnerable people and populations. The Psalmist reflects on the past and on examples of God’s history of deliverance. He hopes and prays that history will repeat itself in his own and other vulnerable individuals’ lives.
Notwithstanding such expressed hopes, in Psalm 11 the threat of the malevolently immoral is very much present. Some have given up hope that the power of the malevolently immoral can be checked, and suggest that the Psalmist join them in their pessimism. The Psalmist rejects their pessimism and expresses faith in God and His deliverance. In Psalm 12, the Psalmist gives voice to the reality of the dominance that the malevolently immoral enjoy. They seem to be everywhere and to have grown their influence and prestige among the general population. But, in the midst of the Psalmist’s lament over this sad state of affairs, he hears God’s voice. God promises that he will rise up and deliver the vulnerable from the threat the malevolently immoral pose. The Psalmist believes God’s promise. Indeed, nothing can be as sure as this Divine promise.
Whether or not we read Psalm 13 as a continuation of the same or a similar threat against the Psalmist that we found in the proceeding psalms, we should understand the Psalmist’s desperate opening plea in light of Psalm 12’s divine promise in which the Psalmist put such stock. God has not fulfilled His promise. The Psalmist has been suffering for a long time and continues to do so now. God is nowhere to be found. He seems to have forgotten and ignored the Psalmist’s affliction and need. The divine absence and disregard causes serious doubt to enter the Psalmist’s mind.
In Psalm 4, the Psalmist had questioned those who attacked him. “How long will you men of repute smear my reputation?” (vs. 2) In Psalm 6, a previous low for the Psalmist, he was so bold as to question God.
“And I ask you, YHWH,
‘How long will this go on?” (vs. 3)
He again questioned God in Psalm 10.
“Why, Yahweh, are You now so standoffish?
Why do You remain absent during these distressing times?” (vs. 1)
But Psalm 13 reaches a new low. The Psalmist’s questioning of God is more intense. He wonders, not once, not twice, not trice, but four times “how long” his enemies will continue to thrive and “how long” his suffering will last. Though the Psalmist’s enemies are not named, or the nature of their attacks specified, a wholistic, canonical reading of the psalms leads us to conclude that the enemies are the same class of malevolently immoral who have prowled the previous psalms and are found “absolutely everywhere” according to the Psalmist’s view (12.8).
I appreciate the Psalmist’s questioning of God. It amounts, really, to a challenge. I appreciate the Psalmist’s honest and faithful expression of doubt. I have from time to time felt doubts similar to his. I have doubted God, doubted His promises to right wrongs, doubted his interest or engagement with not so much my own difficulties as those facing all of humanity, especially the word’s vulnerable and poor. I have chaffed at the dominance of the world’s malevolently immoral, who seem to infest every nook and cranny of the planet, causing immeasurable suffering in every corner of the globe.
Many years ago, a friend suggested that I should go to the theaters and watch a movie. The movie’s name was “Platoon.” I self-righteously informed this friend that, as counseled, it was not my habit to watch R-rated movies. Less self-righteously, he informed me that it was not his habit either, but that this movie was one that addressed moral issues with which our world needed to wrestle. Somehow, his challenge moved me, and I ended up going to the theater and watching the movie—I smile now, remembering how I slinked in and out of the theater hoping that no one I knew would see me.
The movie was revelatory. And it wasn’t simply the intensity of R-rated entertainment. I left the theater ashamed. Ashamed to be human. Ashamed to be a member of a despicable race that could act with such cruelty, brutality, and violence. More intelligent than apes, we acted little better than they, our moral capacities falling far short of our intellectual. I was embarrassed by our animal nature—a certain church leader of my younger years by the name of David O. McKay used to speak of our “animal nature” and the need to rise about it.
I have, since, watched a number of R-rated movies that I felt had redeeming social value. I recently watched the movie, “Oppenheimer.” Like “Platoon,” it is a movie that, in my view, perhaps ought to be mandatory viewing. It might provide a moral education for the natural man, the intelligent ape that resides within our species.
Anyway, after watching the movie, I felt, once more, ashamed to be human. But, this time, my shame extended beyond myself and my species. My shame extended to God, Himself. I was embarrassed for Him. What a lousy Father He must feel like to have sired such a despicable, self-destructive race! If God exists, I felt, thought, and expressed, what a failed parent He seems to be. Which is more likely? I wondered. Which is better: to believe in such a flawed and impotent God or to disbelieve in God’s existence? Sometimes I find both the belief in such a seemingly flawed and impotent God and the disbelief in God to be disconcerting. It was not a pleasant few days afterwards.
I am not fully reconciled to or with God. With the Psalmist, I wonder at His standoffishness. I do, though, find myself praying still. That’s something, I suppose. I find my mind repeating a certain Lamanite king’s prayer. “I’ve been told ‘that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou…’?” (Al. 22.18). I have, as a loving father once did when he approached Jesus, pleaded, “help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9.24).
As scripture has done throughout my life, such scriptures provide a measure of comfort. They are a spiritual lifeline to which I cling. The Psalmist’s bold questioning of God gives me comfort. I am not alone among the doubting faithful. And like the Psalmist who continues to hope even in the face of doubt, I will continue to hope in my doubt. I will continue to question. I will continue to challenge. I will continue to hope. And I will continue to be grateful to scripture which has been the greatest influence in my life. And no Book has been more influential in helping me maintain faith and hope than the Book of Psalms.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
1How long, YHWH? Will You always ignore me?
How long will You conceal Yourself from me?
2How long must I suffer deep doubt,
deeply grieving day in and day out?
How long will my enemy continue to have the advantage over me? (author’s translation)
In commenting on Psalms 3-7, we treated them as if they all addressed the same or a similar circumstance in which the Psalmist was the victim of character assassination and charges of guilt—guilt such as separated him from God and His assistance. Throughout, the Psalmist maintained his innocence and his faith in God’s help. After a kind of apotheosis in Psalm 8, in which the Psalmist adopts a more global view, the Psalmist recognizes in Psalms 9 and 10 (one psalm) that enemies such as he had were a global problem. Those whom the Psalmist calls “malevolently immoral” attack all the planet’s vulnerable people and populations. The Psalmist reflects on the past and on examples of God’s history of deliverance. He hopes and prays that history will repeat itself in his own and other vulnerable individuals’ lives.
Notwithstanding such expressed hopes, in Psalm 11 the threat of the malevolently immoral is very much present. Some have given up hope that the power of the malevolently immoral can be checked, and suggest that the Psalmist join them in their pessimism. The Psalmist rejects their pessimism and expresses faith in God and His deliverance. In Psalm 12, the Psalmist gives voice to the reality of the dominance that the malevolently immoral enjoy. They seem to be everywhere and to have grown their influence and prestige among the general population. But, in the midst of the Psalmist’s lament over this sad state of affairs, he hears God’s voice. God promises that he will rise up and deliver the vulnerable from the threat the malevolently immoral pose. The Psalmist believes God’s promise. Indeed, nothing can be as sure as this Divine promise.
Whether or not we read Psalm 13 as a continuation of the same or a similar threat against the Psalmist that we found in the proceeding psalms, we should understand the Psalmist’s desperate opening plea in light of Psalm 12’s divine promise in which the Psalmist put such stock. God has not fulfilled His promise. The Psalmist has been suffering for a long time and continues to do so now. God is nowhere to be found. He seems to have forgotten and ignored the Psalmist’s affliction and need. The divine absence and disregard causes serious doubt to enter the Psalmist’s mind.
In Psalm 4, the Psalmist had questioned those who attacked him. “How long will you men of repute smear my reputation?” (vs. 2) In Psalm 6, a previous low for the Psalmist, he was so bold as to question God.
“And I ask you, YHWH,
‘How long will this go on?” (vs. 3)
He again questioned God in Psalm 10.
“Why, Yahweh, are You now so standoffish?
Why do You remain absent during these distressing times?” (vs. 1)
But Psalm 13 reaches a new low. The Psalmist’s questioning of God is more intense. He wonders, not once, not twice, not trice, but four times “how long” his enemies will continue to thrive and “how long” his suffering will last. Though the Psalmist’s enemies are not named, or the nature of their attacks specified, a wholistic, canonical reading of the psalms leads us to conclude that the enemies are the same class of malevolently immoral who have prowled the previous psalms and are found “absolutely everywhere” according to the Psalmist’s view (12.8).
I appreciate the Psalmist’s questioning of God. It amounts, really, to a challenge. I appreciate the Psalmist’s honest and faithful expression of doubt. I have from time to time felt doubts similar to his. I have doubted God, doubted His promises to right wrongs, doubted his interest or engagement with not so much my own difficulties as those facing all of humanity, especially the word’s vulnerable and poor. I have chaffed at the dominance of the world’s malevolently immoral, who seem to infest every nook and cranny of the planet, causing immeasurable suffering in every corner of the globe.
Many years ago, a friend suggested that I should go to the theaters and watch a movie. The movie’s name was “Platoon.” I self-righteously informed this friend that, as counseled, it was not my habit to watch R-rated movies. Less self-righteously, he informed me that it was not his habit either, but that this movie was one that addressed moral issues with which our world needed to wrestle. Somehow, his challenge moved me, and I ended up going to the theater and watching the movie—I smile now, remembering how I slinked in and out of the theater hoping that no one I knew would see me.
The movie was revelatory. And it wasn’t simply the intensity of R-rated entertainment. I left the theater ashamed. Ashamed to be human. Ashamed to be a member of a despicable race that could act with such cruelty, brutality, and violence. More intelligent than apes, we acted little better than they, our moral capacities falling far short of our intellectual. I was embarrassed by our animal nature—a certain church leader of my younger years by the name of David O. McKay used to speak of our “animal nature” and the need to rise about it.
I have, since, watched a number of R-rated movies that I felt had redeeming social value. I recently watched the movie, “Oppenheimer.” Like “Platoon,” it is a movie that, in my view, perhaps ought to be mandatory viewing. It might provide a moral education for the natural man, the intelligent ape that resides within our species.
Anyway, after watching the movie, I felt, once more, ashamed to be human. But, this time, my shame extended beyond myself and my species. My shame extended to God, Himself. I was embarrassed for Him. What a lousy Father He must feel like to have sired such a despicable, self-destructive race! If God exists, I felt, thought, and expressed, what a failed parent He seems to be. Which is more likely? I wondered. Which is better: to believe in such a flawed and impotent God or to disbelieve in God’s existence? Sometimes I find both the belief in such a seemingly flawed and impotent God and the disbelief in God to be disconcerting. It was not a pleasant few days afterwards.
I am not fully reconciled to or with God. With the Psalmist, I wonder at His standoffishness. I do, though, find myself praying still. That’s something, I suppose. I find my mind repeating a certain Lamanite king’s prayer. “I’ve been told ‘that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou…’?” (Al. 22.18). I have, as a loving father once did when he approached Jesus, pleaded, “help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9.24).
As scripture has done throughout my life, such scriptures provide a measure of comfort. They are a spiritual lifeline to which I cling. The Psalmist’s bold questioning of God gives me comfort. I am not alone among the doubting faithful. And like the Psalmist who continues to hope even in the face of doubt, I will continue to hope in my doubt. I will continue to question. I will continue to challenge. I will continue to hope. And I will continue to be grateful to scripture which has been the greatest influence in my life. And no Book has been more influential in helping me maintain faith and hope than the Book of Psalms.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
psalm 12 meditation 3
psalm 12.6-8
certainty of yhwh’s promises
6YHWH’s promises are sure promises.
They are like silver refined in an earthen furnace,
refined to completion.
7It is You, YHWH, who protects them.
You continually defend them from their peers--
8the malevolently immoral roaming about absolutely everywhere
whenever what is despicable is celebrated among humankind.
One of the great strengths of scripture is its adaptability to new conditions and applicability to every reader. Its strength as “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” is priceless (Heb. 4.12). Many a man and woman has been undone as scripture read them and then remade by the matchless and discerning word of God.
As valued as scripture’s applicability is to each individual and their circumstances, it is, nevertheless, always a good idea to begin one’s understanding and application of scripture as best one can within its original historical, cultural, and narrative context. The former two can be difficult and sometimes impossible. The latter, however, is easily assessable to every reader.
Today’s reading provides a good example of the importance of the narrative context. The Psalmist bears witness that “YHWH’s promises are sure promises.” This is true of every word and every promise God speaks. They can be relied on. Yet, here, in its narrative context, the Psalmist has a more localized focus on the dependability of God’s words and promises. As recorded in verse 5, the Psalmist has heard God forthrightly declare,
“‘Because of the despoiling of the downtrodden
and the grieving of the impoverished,
I will immediately arise,’ promises YHWH.
‘I will provide them with protection against those who hold them in contempt.’”
It is these words and this specific promise, this specific “word of God” to which the Psalmist refers when he speaks of the tried-and-true dependability of God’s promises.
God informs the Psalmist that He observes very closely and accurately how individuals, institutions, governments, and societies treat the disadvantaged, impoverished, and downtrodden. He sees every act of oppression perpetrated against them. His ears are wide open to every sigh the vulnerable utter, every worry they express, and every heartache they suffer. He will rescue the downtrodden and impoverished from every oppressor who holds them in contempt. He will hold the malevolently immoral accountable for every troubled sigh, every worry, and ever heartache they cause.
The Psalmist believes God’s witness. We can count on this promise being fulfilled, he assures us. In our language, we might assure that “you can take it to the bank.” In the Psalmist’s language, God’s promise to rescue the downtrodden and impoverished is as sure as silver is pure that has passed through the most arduous purifying process.
“They are like silver refined in an earthen furnace,
refined to completion.”
There are few expressions of this faithful and divine promise more beautiful, edifying, or encouraging than that found in the fifty-eighth section of the Doctrine and Covenants. Here, God reminds His followers that they are called to testify and bear witness of His future intentions, intentions that will be best exemplified and fulfilled in a society that goes by the name, “Zion.” There, in Zion,
“a feast of fat things [will] be prepared for the poor; yea, a feast of fat things, of wine on the lees well refined, that the earth may know that the mouths of the prophets shall not fail; yea, a supper of the house of the Lord, well prepared, unto which all nations shall be invited. First, the rich and the learned, the wise and the noble; and after that cometh the day of my power; then shall the poor, the lame, and the blind, and the deaf, come in unto the marriage of the Lamb, and partake of the supper of the Lord, prepared for the great day to come. Behold, I, the Lord, have spoken it” (vss. 6-12).
Though one rejoices that such a time will come, still, it is a major disappointment that this day has not already arrived. One is tempted to complain and ask why. Are God’s promises really as sure as the Psalmist claims? I am not always so hopeful. Some two-and-a-half millennia have passed, after all, since his utterance, and still the malevolently immoral rule. Still, the vulnerable worry and hurt and suffer at their hands. “How long, O Lord, holy and true,” must they continue to suffer?” we ask with the suffering to whom the Revelator gave voice (Rev. 6.10).
I don’t know. I am as uncertain as the next about God’s plans. There are, for example, two hypothetical types of millennialism: premillennialism and postmillennialism. Those who advocate for the first, believe that Jesus will come before the millennium begins and will, in fact, usher it in. He will dramatically and miraculously change society. Those who advocate for the second, believe that Jesus will come after the millennium begins, coming then because humanity has already ushed it in a new type of society, and, having chosen to live by his principles, are prepared to meet him.
I am not a strong literalist and am unsure about the whole millennium thing. But, if I were a millennial literalist, I would lean toward the postmillennialist view. God has had thousands of years to do something about the malevolently immoral and for the vulnerable. He has not. He has been silent as the Stalins and Hitlers and Pol Pots and Trumps have wreaked havoc. He has silently watched many millions suffer at their and their kindred spirits’ hands. This leads me to conclude that when it comes to His promise to check the power of the malevolently immoral and protect and deliver the vulnerable from them, God cannot or will not bring it to fruition through force and violence; that He can’t or won’t fulfill His promise without the help and cooperation of others—without the help and cooperation of you and me.
It seems likely to me that Zion represents those people who, among other things, exemplify for all the world to see what true godliness looks like in relation to the treatment of the downtrodden, the impoverished, and the vulnerable. Zion must act as example before the world can begin to change and become a place better fit to receive its King.
Sadly, it seems that the vulnerable continue to suffer, in part, because God’s people continue to be ensnared by their own unholy and lustful temporal desires, and, so, are not the examples that they are called to be. Perhaps it is God’s people who are largely to blame for the delay of God’s promises to the world’s downtrodden, impoverished, and vulnerable. God’s people are, perhaps, still enthralled by “the malevolently immoral who roam about absolutely everywhere;” Too many of them continue to celebrate perverted economic, nationalistic, and militaristic systems, are enslaved by their despicable principles, and engage in despicable behavior themselves. If so, woe, woe, woe be unto those slothful and unwise servants and the world that is left without the savor of salt.
The Psalmist began Psalm 12 with the observation and complaint that the malevolently immoral seemed to have taken over the world.
“…the trustworthy individual has ceased to exist;
the truthful have vanished from humankind.
Everyone speaks disingenuously with everyone;
using flattering language, they tell each other what they want to hear.”
He ends on much the same note, complaining that the malevolently immoral seem to be “roaming about absolutely everywhere,” and lamenting that this state persists because “what is despicable is celebrated among humankind.” It seems to me that not much has changed since the Psalmist’s day. The malevolently immoral continue to roam unhindered across the planet. Mankind continues to celebrate what God finds despicable.
We join the Psalmist in pleading with God to rise in defense and comfort of the downtrodden, impoverished, and vulnerable, and that the malevolently immoral will get their comeuppance. We join God, Himself, in hoping for a day when His people will fulfill their role as the light of the world; as salt to give savor to the world so that the promises made to the downtrodden, impoverished, and vulnerable will finally be realized. We look forward to that day when God
“comfort[s] all that mourn…
gives[s] them beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord,
that he might be glorified” (Is. 61.2-3).
May His people reject the lies of the malevolently immoral and the celebration of what is despicable. May they be found willing partners in this grand enterprise of creating a new society in which the downtrodden, the impoverished, and the vulnerable feast on the fat things of this world and the fat things of eternity.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
6YHWH’s promises are sure promises.
They are like silver refined in an earthen furnace,
refined to completion.
7It is You, YHWH, who protects them.
You continually defend them from their peers--
8the malevolently immoral roaming about absolutely everywhere
whenever what is despicable is celebrated among humankind.
One of the great strengths of scripture is its adaptability to new conditions and applicability to every reader. Its strength as “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” is priceless (Heb. 4.12). Many a man and woman has been undone as scripture read them and then remade by the matchless and discerning word of God.
As valued as scripture’s applicability is to each individual and their circumstances, it is, nevertheless, always a good idea to begin one’s understanding and application of scripture as best one can within its original historical, cultural, and narrative context. The former two can be difficult and sometimes impossible. The latter, however, is easily assessable to every reader.
Today’s reading provides a good example of the importance of the narrative context. The Psalmist bears witness that “YHWH’s promises are sure promises.” This is true of every word and every promise God speaks. They can be relied on. Yet, here, in its narrative context, the Psalmist has a more localized focus on the dependability of God’s words and promises. As recorded in verse 5, the Psalmist has heard God forthrightly declare,
“‘Because of the despoiling of the downtrodden
and the grieving of the impoverished,
I will immediately arise,’ promises YHWH.
‘I will provide them with protection against those who hold them in contempt.’”
It is these words and this specific promise, this specific “word of God” to which the Psalmist refers when he speaks of the tried-and-true dependability of God’s promises.
God informs the Psalmist that He observes very closely and accurately how individuals, institutions, governments, and societies treat the disadvantaged, impoverished, and downtrodden. He sees every act of oppression perpetrated against them. His ears are wide open to every sigh the vulnerable utter, every worry they express, and every heartache they suffer. He will rescue the downtrodden and impoverished from every oppressor who holds them in contempt. He will hold the malevolently immoral accountable for every troubled sigh, every worry, and ever heartache they cause.
The Psalmist believes God’s witness. We can count on this promise being fulfilled, he assures us. In our language, we might assure that “you can take it to the bank.” In the Psalmist’s language, God’s promise to rescue the downtrodden and impoverished is as sure as silver is pure that has passed through the most arduous purifying process.
“They are like silver refined in an earthen furnace,
refined to completion.”
There are few expressions of this faithful and divine promise more beautiful, edifying, or encouraging than that found in the fifty-eighth section of the Doctrine and Covenants. Here, God reminds His followers that they are called to testify and bear witness of His future intentions, intentions that will be best exemplified and fulfilled in a society that goes by the name, “Zion.” There, in Zion,
“a feast of fat things [will] be prepared for the poor; yea, a feast of fat things, of wine on the lees well refined, that the earth may know that the mouths of the prophets shall not fail; yea, a supper of the house of the Lord, well prepared, unto which all nations shall be invited. First, the rich and the learned, the wise and the noble; and after that cometh the day of my power; then shall the poor, the lame, and the blind, and the deaf, come in unto the marriage of the Lamb, and partake of the supper of the Lord, prepared for the great day to come. Behold, I, the Lord, have spoken it” (vss. 6-12).
Though one rejoices that such a time will come, still, it is a major disappointment that this day has not already arrived. One is tempted to complain and ask why. Are God’s promises really as sure as the Psalmist claims? I am not always so hopeful. Some two-and-a-half millennia have passed, after all, since his utterance, and still the malevolently immoral rule. Still, the vulnerable worry and hurt and suffer at their hands. “How long, O Lord, holy and true,” must they continue to suffer?” we ask with the suffering to whom the Revelator gave voice (Rev. 6.10).
I don’t know. I am as uncertain as the next about God’s plans. There are, for example, two hypothetical types of millennialism: premillennialism and postmillennialism. Those who advocate for the first, believe that Jesus will come before the millennium begins and will, in fact, usher it in. He will dramatically and miraculously change society. Those who advocate for the second, believe that Jesus will come after the millennium begins, coming then because humanity has already ushed it in a new type of society, and, having chosen to live by his principles, are prepared to meet him.
I am not a strong literalist and am unsure about the whole millennium thing. But, if I were a millennial literalist, I would lean toward the postmillennialist view. God has had thousands of years to do something about the malevolently immoral and for the vulnerable. He has not. He has been silent as the Stalins and Hitlers and Pol Pots and Trumps have wreaked havoc. He has silently watched many millions suffer at their and their kindred spirits’ hands. This leads me to conclude that when it comes to His promise to check the power of the malevolently immoral and protect and deliver the vulnerable from them, God cannot or will not bring it to fruition through force and violence; that He can’t or won’t fulfill His promise without the help and cooperation of others—without the help and cooperation of you and me.
It seems likely to me that Zion represents those people who, among other things, exemplify for all the world to see what true godliness looks like in relation to the treatment of the downtrodden, the impoverished, and the vulnerable. Zion must act as example before the world can begin to change and become a place better fit to receive its King.
Sadly, it seems that the vulnerable continue to suffer, in part, because God’s people continue to be ensnared by their own unholy and lustful temporal desires, and, so, are not the examples that they are called to be. Perhaps it is God’s people who are largely to blame for the delay of God’s promises to the world’s downtrodden, impoverished, and vulnerable. God’s people are, perhaps, still enthralled by “the malevolently immoral who roam about absolutely everywhere;” Too many of them continue to celebrate perverted economic, nationalistic, and militaristic systems, are enslaved by their despicable principles, and engage in despicable behavior themselves. If so, woe, woe, woe be unto those slothful and unwise servants and the world that is left without the savor of salt.
The Psalmist began Psalm 12 with the observation and complaint that the malevolently immoral seemed to have taken over the world.
“…the trustworthy individual has ceased to exist;
the truthful have vanished from humankind.
Everyone speaks disingenuously with everyone;
using flattering language, they tell each other what they want to hear.”
He ends on much the same note, complaining that the malevolently immoral seem to be “roaming about absolutely everywhere,” and lamenting that this state persists because “what is despicable is celebrated among humankind.” It seems to me that not much has changed since the Psalmist’s day. The malevolently immoral continue to roam unhindered across the planet. Mankind continues to celebrate what God finds despicable.
We join the Psalmist in pleading with God to rise in defense and comfort of the downtrodden, impoverished, and vulnerable, and that the malevolently immoral will get their comeuppance. We join God, Himself, in hoping for a day when His people will fulfill their role as the light of the world; as salt to give savor to the world so that the promises made to the downtrodden, impoverished, and vulnerable will finally be realized. We look forward to that day when God
“comfort[s] all that mourn…
gives[s] them beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord,
that he might be glorified” (Is. 61.2-3).
May His people reject the lies of the malevolently immoral and the celebration of what is despicable. May they be found willing partners in this grand enterprise of creating a new society in which the downtrodden, the impoverished, and the vulnerable feast on the fat things of this world and the fat things of eternity.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
psalm 12 meditation 2
psalm 12.5
yhwh’s positive reply
5“Because of the despoiling of the downtrodden
and the grieving of the impoverished,
I will immediately arise,” promises YHWH.
“I will provide them with protection against those who hold them in contempt”.
In verses 1-4, the Psalmist complained about the malevolently immoral who used false, manipulative, and performative speech to acquire and maintain influence and power. Such behavior, it seemed to him, was nearly universal.
“Help, YHWH, because the trustworthy individual has ceased to exist;
the truthful have vanished from humankind.
Everyone speaks disingenuously with everyone;
using flattering language, they tell each other what they want to hear.
Put an end, YHWH, to all such flattering language.
Put an end to lips uttering boasts
that assert, “We will maintain power by means of speech.
We are in control. Who can be our master?”
However, this quest for influence and power is but one motivation for the use of false, manipulative, and performative speech. From his initial complaint of the false, manipulative, and performative speech and his characterization of the malevolently immoral, the Psalmist transitions into God’s reply in verse 5. Here, God makes a promise. It is a marvelous promise. It moves the Psalmist. He will reflect beautifully on it in the concluding verses of the Psalm. But before we reflect on the promise, we should make an important observation. In transitioning from his characterization of the false, manipulative, and performative speech of the malevolently immoral to God’s response to that speech, the Psalmist speaks of
“… the despoiling of the downtrodden
and the grieving of the impoverished…”
In the Psalmist’s mind, then, there is some connection, some relationship between the false, manipulative, and performative speech of the malevolently immoral and the oppression that the malevolently immoral perpetrate against the downtrodden and impoverished. What is that connection and relationship?
We were informed in Psalm 10.2 that
“In self-importance, the malevolently immoral vigorously pursues the disadvantaged.
The disadvantaged are ensnared by the plans they conceive.”
Furthermore,
“They [the malevolently immoral] sit in ambush outside villages.
From concealed places they slay the innocent;
their eyes peer out at the vulnerable.
Like a lion, they lie in wait from a concealed place in the brush.
They lie in ambush to seize the downtrodden.
They seize the downtrodden, dragging him into their lair.
They crouch low, hunch down,
and fall upon the bones of the vulnerable.
They say to themselves, “God pays no attention.
He’s absent. He sees nothing, ever” (10.8-11).
No one, of course, is safe from the false, manipulative, and performative speech of the malevolently immoral. But the downtrodden, impoverished, and disadvantaged are particularly vulnerable to such speech. First, they inevitably become the targets of such speech. They are targeted by those who seek power. They are bad-mouthed and belittled as a means of obtaining power. We saw an example of this in the 2016 American election as the leading GOP candidate for president used grotesque, false, manipulative, and performative speech to belittle foreigners, immigrants, migrants, and asylum seekers—all of whom are disadvantaged and vulnerable.
Once those who seek power have aquired power, they can use their influential speech to target the vulnerable, disadvantaged, and poor through the manipulation of public attitudes toward them and through public policy. Society is encouraged to consider vulnerability as a character flaw rather than a proof of societal failure. Too often, the vulnerable and their grieving becomes viewed with a sense of justified glee rather than compassion. Laws are passed that leave the poor to suffer all manner of insecurities—food insecurity, housing insecurity, and health insecurity, for example. The poor suffer all manner of injustices in the legal system as they are denied quality legal representation and equal treatment under the law. All too often a corrupted legal system does not hold accountable the wealthy who take advantage of and mistreat the vulnerable.
The Hebrew prophets see all these evils in their society and comment energetically upon them. We could fill pages, write entire books on the prophet criticisms of the malevolently immoral and societies that follow their lead. Of course, the modern world is every bit as guilty of such malevolent immorality as ancient Israel and Judah.
One comes to believe, indeed, that the targeting and disadvantaging of classes of fellow citizens is one of the driving motivations of the malevolently immoral as they seek power and influence. According to the false belief in a “zero-sum game,” the losses that the vulnerable suffer are gain for the malevolently immoral. In the false doctrine of the malevolently immoral in which any success, however slight, that the vulnerable might enjoy is felt to be a loss to themselves, the malevolently immoral do all in their power to keep the vulnerable in their subservient place.
It’s all unspeakably pathetic. Unspeakably evil. Very few things rouse God to action like the false, manipulative, and performative speech and the very real action that is taken against the downtrodden, the disadvantaged, the poor, and the impoverished. We should be overjoyed, then, but not surprised by the Lord’s promise,
“‘I will immediately arise,’ promises YHWH.
‘I will provide them with protection against those who hold them in contempt.’”
One can hardly wait for God to fulfill His promise and come to the aid and rescue of the downtrodden, disadvantaged, and impoverished. It is to this promise of that divine aid and rescue that we turn our attention in the next meditation.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
5“Because of the despoiling of the downtrodden
and the grieving of the impoverished,
I will immediately arise,” promises YHWH.
“I will provide them with protection against those who hold them in contempt”.
In verses 1-4, the Psalmist complained about the malevolently immoral who used false, manipulative, and performative speech to acquire and maintain influence and power. Such behavior, it seemed to him, was nearly universal.
“Help, YHWH, because the trustworthy individual has ceased to exist;
the truthful have vanished from humankind.
Everyone speaks disingenuously with everyone;
using flattering language, they tell each other what they want to hear.
Put an end, YHWH, to all such flattering language.
Put an end to lips uttering boasts
that assert, “We will maintain power by means of speech.
We are in control. Who can be our master?”
However, this quest for influence and power is but one motivation for the use of false, manipulative, and performative speech. From his initial complaint of the false, manipulative, and performative speech and his characterization of the malevolently immoral, the Psalmist transitions into God’s reply in verse 5. Here, God makes a promise. It is a marvelous promise. It moves the Psalmist. He will reflect beautifully on it in the concluding verses of the Psalm. But before we reflect on the promise, we should make an important observation. In transitioning from his characterization of the false, manipulative, and performative speech of the malevolently immoral to God’s response to that speech, the Psalmist speaks of
“… the despoiling of the downtrodden
and the grieving of the impoverished…”
In the Psalmist’s mind, then, there is some connection, some relationship between the false, manipulative, and performative speech of the malevolently immoral and the oppression that the malevolently immoral perpetrate against the downtrodden and impoverished. What is that connection and relationship?
We were informed in Psalm 10.2 that
“In self-importance, the malevolently immoral vigorously pursues the disadvantaged.
The disadvantaged are ensnared by the plans they conceive.”
Furthermore,
“They [the malevolently immoral] sit in ambush outside villages.
From concealed places they slay the innocent;
their eyes peer out at the vulnerable.
Like a lion, they lie in wait from a concealed place in the brush.
They lie in ambush to seize the downtrodden.
They seize the downtrodden, dragging him into their lair.
They crouch low, hunch down,
and fall upon the bones of the vulnerable.
They say to themselves, “God pays no attention.
He’s absent. He sees nothing, ever” (10.8-11).
No one, of course, is safe from the false, manipulative, and performative speech of the malevolently immoral. But the downtrodden, impoverished, and disadvantaged are particularly vulnerable to such speech. First, they inevitably become the targets of such speech. They are targeted by those who seek power. They are bad-mouthed and belittled as a means of obtaining power. We saw an example of this in the 2016 American election as the leading GOP candidate for president used grotesque, false, manipulative, and performative speech to belittle foreigners, immigrants, migrants, and asylum seekers—all of whom are disadvantaged and vulnerable.
Once those who seek power have aquired power, they can use their influential speech to target the vulnerable, disadvantaged, and poor through the manipulation of public attitudes toward them and through public policy. Society is encouraged to consider vulnerability as a character flaw rather than a proof of societal failure. Too often, the vulnerable and their grieving becomes viewed with a sense of justified glee rather than compassion. Laws are passed that leave the poor to suffer all manner of insecurities—food insecurity, housing insecurity, and health insecurity, for example. The poor suffer all manner of injustices in the legal system as they are denied quality legal representation and equal treatment under the law. All too often a corrupted legal system does not hold accountable the wealthy who take advantage of and mistreat the vulnerable.
The Hebrew prophets see all these evils in their society and comment energetically upon them. We could fill pages, write entire books on the prophet criticisms of the malevolently immoral and societies that follow their lead. Of course, the modern world is every bit as guilty of such malevolent immorality as ancient Israel and Judah.
One comes to believe, indeed, that the targeting and disadvantaging of classes of fellow citizens is one of the driving motivations of the malevolently immoral as they seek power and influence. According to the false belief in a “zero-sum game,” the losses that the vulnerable suffer are gain for the malevolently immoral. In the false doctrine of the malevolently immoral in which any success, however slight, that the vulnerable might enjoy is felt to be a loss to themselves, the malevolently immoral do all in their power to keep the vulnerable in their subservient place.
It’s all unspeakably pathetic. Unspeakably evil. Very few things rouse God to action like the false, manipulative, and performative speech and the very real action that is taken against the downtrodden, the disadvantaged, the poor, and the impoverished. We should be overjoyed, then, but not surprised by the Lord’s promise,
“‘I will immediately arise,’ promises YHWH.
‘I will provide them with protection against those who hold them in contempt.’”
One can hardly wait for God to fulfill His promise and come to the aid and rescue of the downtrodden, disadvantaged, and impoverished. It is to this promise of that divine aid and rescue that we turn our attention in the next meditation.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
psalm 12 meditation 1
psalm 12.1-4
plea and complaint
1Help, YHWH, because the trustworthy individual has ceased to exist;
the truthful have vanished from humankind.
2Everyone speaks disingenuously with everyone;
using flattering language, they tell each other what they want to hear.
3Put an end, YHWH, to all such flattering language.
Put an end to lips uttering boasts
4that assert, “We will maintain power by means of our speech.
We are in control. Who can be our master?”
After two introductory psalms, Psalms 3-7 are full of the Psalmist’s complaints about those who oppose him. Those who oppose the Psalmist accuse him of wrongdoing which, they charge, has separated him from God. However, in this series of related complaints, the Psalmist consistently maintains his innocence, trusts in God’s fidelity toward him, and persistently makes confident requests for God’s help against his detractors. In Psalm 8, a sort of apotheosis, the Psalmist’s view turns more global so that in Psalms 9 and 10, the Psalmist considers that such adversaries as he has, whom he identifies for the first time as “malevolently immoral,” are a global phenomenon.
The malevolently immoral are characterized as attacking the vulnerable everywhere and in whatsoever circumstances they may be found. Notwithstanding the global influence and power that the malevolently immoral possess or the pessimism of so many about being able to counter or stop their influence and power (11.1-3), the Psalmist maintains his confidence in God and maintains hope of victory over these malevolent forces. The Psalmist is sure that God remans aware of the threat posed by the malevolently immoral and is willing and able to help against their attacks (11.4-6). In this confidence, the Psalmist and all others who believe in God’s fidelity keep their eye firmly and joyfully on God (11.7).
But the malevolently immoral who oppose the Psalmist and other innocent victims like him, are persistent. And so, their threat is present again in Psalm 12. While those of whom the Psalmist complains in verses 1-4 are not named, they are, finally, named in the final verse.
“…the malevolently immoral roam about absolutely everywhere,
whenever what is despicable is celebrated among humankind.”
We will return to this final verse in an upcoming meditation. For now, we limit ourselves to the first four verses which provide further characterization of the malevolently immoral. We have already noted their global influence as described in Psalms 9 and 10. In Psalm 12, it seems to the Psalmist that they have completely taken over the world.
“…the trustworthy individual has ceased to exist;
the truthful have vanished from humankind.
Everyone speaks disingenuously with everyone;
using flattering language, they tell each other what they want to hear.”
The prophet Jeremiah made a similar observation.
“Take ye heed every one of his neighbour,
and trust ye not in any brother:
for every brother will utterly supplant,
and every neighbour will walk with slanders.
And they will deceive every one his neighbour,
and will not speak the truth:
they have taught their tongue to speak lies,
and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit;
through deceit they refuse to know me,
saith the LORD.
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts,
Behold, I will melt them, and try them;
for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?
8Their tongue is as an arrow shot out;
it speaketh deceit:
one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth,
but in heart he layeth his wait” (9.4-8).
The prophet Micah warns,
“Don’t confide in an acquaintance.
Don’t trust a friend.
Guard what you say to your wife” (7.5).
The Psalmist, Jeremiah, and Micah are not alone in seeing that something has gone terribly wrong on earth. The Psalmist portrays God, Himself, has drawing a similar conclusion.
“YHWH looked down from the heavens
upon humankind
to determine, “Are there any in possession of knowledge;
any who consult ’ĕlohîm?”
The whole lot of them had rebelled;
as one, they had become morally tainted.
There were none among them who did good.
None! Not even one!” (Ps. 14.2-3)
So, in Psalm 12, the Psalmist feels that no one can be trusted. Everyone speaks in a false, manipulative, and performative manner. We know ourselves and others better than we often think. Whether consciously or unconsciously, in any conversation or relationship with another, we very quickly discern the thoughts and feelings of the other. We easily discern what they want to hear. If impressing them, in some way winning them over, or gaining power over them is of high enough value, we will say what they want to hear, regardless of our own views. Such disingenuous speech is as much a form of flattery as when we disingenuously complement another in some way.
While such false, manipulative, and performative speech can be somewhat benign when engaged in at the personal level, the Psalmist has something far less benign and much more sinister in mind. False, manipulative, and performative speech is especially useful to and prevalent among those who wish to acquire or maintain power and influence over others. In this sphere, it becomes propaganda and spin. The Psalmist has this more sinister use of false, manipulative, performative, and flattering speech in mind when he makes his complaint to God. The malevolently immoral assert,
“We will maintain power by means of our speech.
We are in control. Who can be our master?”
Far too much political discourse is divorced from truth and reality, and is manipulative and performative in content and intent. Examples of this performative and manipulative political discourse abound among politicians who seek to obtain or maintain power and influence. While such speech is common, it is especially egregious in the speech of the former U.S. president and current GOP’s leading 2024 presidential candidate, who, devoid of principle or real governing interests, acts more like actor or performer than one with serious governing interests. Based on the responses of his audiences, they love his belligerence and irreverence. Swear words, slurs, and hate speech aimed at certain groups elicit the loudest cheers and largest roars of approval and gratification. Knowing what his audiences feel themselves and what they want to hear, he gives it to them in spades. Again, this performative speech in which he mimics his audiences and gives voice to their own twisted views is a form of flattery (why his audiences at twisted as they are is a question for another time and place).
For two years, this same candidate used a derisive nickname for his presumed chief rival. The moment the rival withdrew from the political race, the leading candidate ceased all name calling and began to speak respectfully and appreciatively of the rival. When asked why the nickname had been abandoned and a previously absent conciliatory tone had been adopted, the candidate responded casually with, “Well, he is no longer my rival.” This explanation, amounting, really, to a confession, demonstrates that all the name calling of the previous two years was performative, divorced from any real sense of what the leading candidate felt about the other. It was meant to manipulate his audiences. Among the many marvels that surround this candidate is that his followers cannot see through the obvious façade.
Unfortunately, these two examples are the least offensive and least destructive of the innumerable examples of this candidate’s false, manipulative, and performative speech in which he incessantly engages. They also confirm what the Psalmist discerns: that such false, manipulative, and performative speech and action are central to the acquisition and maintenance of power (and, yes, by associating this candidate with the Psalmist’s complaint, I identify him as an example of the malevolently immoral, and an extreme one at that. This is not me being ugly. This is simply me speaking truthfully, and, popular or not, consistent with scripture’s judgments).
False, manipulative, and performative speech is also used to influence. One modern example at the institutional level will suffice for now. FOX, one of the U.S.’s broadcast “news” networks, does little more than put its finger in the air, establish what its audience wants to hear, and then give it to them. There have been rare occasions when it has either misjudged its audience’s appetite for truth or decided to tell the truth regardless of its audience’s appetite to hear itself parroted. As soon as its viewership complained or dropped because it rebels at hearing something that does not conform to its conceptions, the network quickly retreats and goes back to feeding its audience what it wants to hear, truth be damned.
Individuals and institutions often chose to maintain their power and influence though false, manipulative, and performative speech. They refuse to act with self-restraint or control. They will not be reined in by society’s norms, any moral principles, or regard for truth. And, most assuredly, they will not be guided by God and the principles upon which respectful and healthy personal relationships and an enduring society are based.
“We are in control. Who can be our master?”
This is in line with the Psalmist’s observation in Psalm 10.
“The malevolently immoral, consistent with their stubborn arrogance, are unreflective.
’Elōhîm is not considered in any of their plans.
They twist ’ĕlōhîm’s principles.
’Elōhîm’s elevated judgement opposes them.
Anything that would restraint them they blow off.
They say to themselves, ‘I cannot be toppled.
My future holds no misfortune’” (10.4-6).
The malevolently immoral and their false, manipulative, and performative speech represents an assault upon decency. It represents an assault upon society. “What,” the Psalmists asked in the previous Psalm, “can the just do, when the foundations are being torn down?” Whatever resistance we can offer, our best resistance rests with God. We plead, as does the Psalmist in this psalm, that God help us and put an end to the those who seek influence and power though the use of false, manipulative, and performative speech.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
1Help, YHWH, because the trustworthy individual has ceased to exist;
the truthful have vanished from humankind.
2Everyone speaks disingenuously with everyone;
using flattering language, they tell each other what they want to hear.
3Put an end, YHWH, to all such flattering language.
Put an end to lips uttering boasts
4that assert, “We will maintain power by means of our speech.
We are in control. Who can be our master?”
After two introductory psalms, Psalms 3-7 are full of the Psalmist’s complaints about those who oppose him. Those who oppose the Psalmist accuse him of wrongdoing which, they charge, has separated him from God. However, in this series of related complaints, the Psalmist consistently maintains his innocence, trusts in God’s fidelity toward him, and persistently makes confident requests for God’s help against his detractors. In Psalm 8, a sort of apotheosis, the Psalmist’s view turns more global so that in Psalms 9 and 10, the Psalmist considers that such adversaries as he has, whom he identifies for the first time as “malevolently immoral,” are a global phenomenon.
The malevolently immoral are characterized as attacking the vulnerable everywhere and in whatsoever circumstances they may be found. Notwithstanding the global influence and power that the malevolently immoral possess or the pessimism of so many about being able to counter or stop their influence and power (11.1-3), the Psalmist maintains his confidence in God and maintains hope of victory over these malevolent forces. The Psalmist is sure that God remans aware of the threat posed by the malevolently immoral and is willing and able to help against their attacks (11.4-6). In this confidence, the Psalmist and all others who believe in God’s fidelity keep their eye firmly and joyfully on God (11.7).
But the malevolently immoral who oppose the Psalmist and other innocent victims like him, are persistent. And so, their threat is present again in Psalm 12. While those of whom the Psalmist complains in verses 1-4 are not named, they are, finally, named in the final verse.
“…the malevolently immoral roam about absolutely everywhere,
whenever what is despicable is celebrated among humankind.”
We will return to this final verse in an upcoming meditation. For now, we limit ourselves to the first four verses which provide further characterization of the malevolently immoral. We have already noted their global influence as described in Psalms 9 and 10. In Psalm 12, it seems to the Psalmist that they have completely taken over the world.
“…the trustworthy individual has ceased to exist;
the truthful have vanished from humankind.
Everyone speaks disingenuously with everyone;
using flattering language, they tell each other what they want to hear.”
The prophet Jeremiah made a similar observation.
“Take ye heed every one of his neighbour,
and trust ye not in any brother:
for every brother will utterly supplant,
and every neighbour will walk with slanders.
And they will deceive every one his neighbour,
and will not speak the truth:
they have taught their tongue to speak lies,
and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit;
through deceit they refuse to know me,
saith the LORD.
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts,
Behold, I will melt them, and try them;
for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?
8Their tongue is as an arrow shot out;
it speaketh deceit:
one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth,
but in heart he layeth his wait” (9.4-8).
The prophet Micah warns,
“Don’t confide in an acquaintance.
Don’t trust a friend.
Guard what you say to your wife” (7.5).
The Psalmist, Jeremiah, and Micah are not alone in seeing that something has gone terribly wrong on earth. The Psalmist portrays God, Himself, has drawing a similar conclusion.
“YHWH looked down from the heavens
upon humankind
to determine, “Are there any in possession of knowledge;
any who consult ’ĕlohîm?”
The whole lot of them had rebelled;
as one, they had become morally tainted.
There were none among them who did good.
None! Not even one!” (Ps. 14.2-3)
So, in Psalm 12, the Psalmist feels that no one can be trusted. Everyone speaks in a false, manipulative, and performative manner. We know ourselves and others better than we often think. Whether consciously or unconsciously, in any conversation or relationship with another, we very quickly discern the thoughts and feelings of the other. We easily discern what they want to hear. If impressing them, in some way winning them over, or gaining power over them is of high enough value, we will say what they want to hear, regardless of our own views. Such disingenuous speech is as much a form of flattery as when we disingenuously complement another in some way.
While such false, manipulative, and performative speech can be somewhat benign when engaged in at the personal level, the Psalmist has something far less benign and much more sinister in mind. False, manipulative, and performative speech is especially useful to and prevalent among those who wish to acquire or maintain power and influence over others. In this sphere, it becomes propaganda and spin. The Psalmist has this more sinister use of false, manipulative, performative, and flattering speech in mind when he makes his complaint to God. The malevolently immoral assert,
“We will maintain power by means of our speech.
We are in control. Who can be our master?”
Far too much political discourse is divorced from truth and reality, and is manipulative and performative in content and intent. Examples of this performative and manipulative political discourse abound among politicians who seek to obtain or maintain power and influence. While such speech is common, it is especially egregious in the speech of the former U.S. president and current GOP’s leading 2024 presidential candidate, who, devoid of principle or real governing interests, acts more like actor or performer than one with serious governing interests. Based on the responses of his audiences, they love his belligerence and irreverence. Swear words, slurs, and hate speech aimed at certain groups elicit the loudest cheers and largest roars of approval and gratification. Knowing what his audiences feel themselves and what they want to hear, he gives it to them in spades. Again, this performative speech in which he mimics his audiences and gives voice to their own twisted views is a form of flattery (why his audiences at twisted as they are is a question for another time and place).
For two years, this same candidate used a derisive nickname for his presumed chief rival. The moment the rival withdrew from the political race, the leading candidate ceased all name calling and began to speak respectfully and appreciatively of the rival. When asked why the nickname had been abandoned and a previously absent conciliatory tone had been adopted, the candidate responded casually with, “Well, he is no longer my rival.” This explanation, amounting, really, to a confession, demonstrates that all the name calling of the previous two years was performative, divorced from any real sense of what the leading candidate felt about the other. It was meant to manipulate his audiences. Among the many marvels that surround this candidate is that his followers cannot see through the obvious façade.
Unfortunately, these two examples are the least offensive and least destructive of the innumerable examples of this candidate’s false, manipulative, and performative speech in which he incessantly engages. They also confirm what the Psalmist discerns: that such false, manipulative, and performative speech and action are central to the acquisition and maintenance of power (and, yes, by associating this candidate with the Psalmist’s complaint, I identify him as an example of the malevolently immoral, and an extreme one at that. This is not me being ugly. This is simply me speaking truthfully, and, popular or not, consistent with scripture’s judgments).
False, manipulative, and performative speech is also used to influence. One modern example at the institutional level will suffice for now. FOX, one of the U.S.’s broadcast “news” networks, does little more than put its finger in the air, establish what its audience wants to hear, and then give it to them. There have been rare occasions when it has either misjudged its audience’s appetite for truth or decided to tell the truth regardless of its audience’s appetite to hear itself parroted. As soon as its viewership complained or dropped because it rebels at hearing something that does not conform to its conceptions, the network quickly retreats and goes back to feeding its audience what it wants to hear, truth be damned.
Individuals and institutions often chose to maintain their power and influence though false, manipulative, and performative speech. They refuse to act with self-restraint or control. They will not be reined in by society’s norms, any moral principles, or regard for truth. And, most assuredly, they will not be guided by God and the principles upon which respectful and healthy personal relationships and an enduring society are based.
“We are in control. Who can be our master?”
This is in line with the Psalmist’s observation in Psalm 10.
“The malevolently immoral, consistent with their stubborn arrogance, are unreflective.
’Elōhîm is not considered in any of their plans.
They twist ’ĕlōhîm’s principles.
’Elōhîm’s elevated judgement opposes them.
Anything that would restraint them they blow off.
They say to themselves, ‘I cannot be toppled.
My future holds no misfortune’” (10.4-6).
The malevolently immoral and their false, manipulative, and performative speech represents an assault upon decency. It represents an assault upon society. “What,” the Psalmists asked in the previous Psalm, “can the just do, when the foundations are being torn down?” Whatever resistance we can offer, our best resistance rests with God. We plead, as does the Psalmist in this psalm, that God help us and put an end to the those who seek influence and power though the use of false, manipulative, and performative speech.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
meditation archives
OLD TESTAMENT
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NEW TESTAMENT
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BOOK OF MORMON
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DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS / PEARL OF GREAT PRICE
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