Psalms 12

Wesley: David begs help of God, having no man whom he could trust. The opening is a cry when godliness and faithfulness seem to have ceased among men.

Save is a petition grace enables and the hearer must still lift when the faithful look gone. Do not howl with the wolves or join the vanishing—cry to the LORD and refuse the flood of unfaithfulness.

Calvin: righteousness was so overthrown among the chosen people that violence and cruelty broke forth with one consent. From black despair around him, David betakes himself to God; the greater the confusion, God is so much the readier to aid his people, and that is the most proper season for him to interpose.

Vanishing faithfulness in the Church is not proof God has abandoned the remnant. Succor is sought because men fail—not because providence has failed.

The verse names the social poison: vanity and lies spoken neighbor to neighbor, flattering lips paired with a double heart.

Doubleness of heart produces doubled speech. Grace calls for undivided sincerity—speech as a mirror of the heart, not varnish that hides injury. Refuse flattery that trades truth for advantage.

Calvin: no sincerity in their speech; every man endeavors to ensnare his neighbor by flattery. They speak with a double heart—part hidden within, covered with hypocrisy—so nothing certain can be gathered from their intentions. Speech must be sincere that uprightness of heart may be beheld in it as in a mirror.

Deceit is not a small social fault; it is unrighteousness against truth, the fox-side of a world that also does lion-violence.

Wesley’s frame: David describes the wicked and assures himself that God would punish them. The plea asks the LORD to cut off flattering lips and the boasting tongue.

Imprecation here is moral petition, not private revenge. Bring proud speech under God’s judgment; do not envy the tongue that seems to win by lies.

Calvin: to the complaint he subjoins an imprecation that God would cut off deceitful tongues—removing that plague. Falsehood and calumnies are more deadly than swords. The flatterers in view are not mere mean traders in compliments but proud boasters who overwhelm the poor and simple with big, haughty discourse.

God, not the victim’s clever tongue, must cut off the plague. Calumny is warfare that only the Judge finally ends.

Wesley: Prevail—by raising and spreading evil reports concerning him. Our own—at our own disposal to speak what we please; who can control or restrain us?

The boast claims untouchable speech—tongue as weapon and lips as private property with no master. That claim is rebellion. Own your tongue under the LORD’s mastery before report-spreading becomes your only strength.

Calvin: those who think that in the very falsehood to which they are addicted they have enough strength to accomplish their purposes have reached the utmost height of wickedness—as if they openly declared war against God. Armed with their tongues they go beyond all bounds and think to accomplish whatever they please, almost covering the sun with darkness by calumny.

“Who is lord over us?” is war on God’s rule. Tongue-strength is not freedom; it is presumption God will answer.

Wesley: Puffeth—from him that despises him, and hopes to destroy him with a puff of breath. God rises because the poor are oppressed and the needy sigh; he sets the afflicted in safety from contemptuous destroyers.

The groan is not ignored. Grace invites the plundered to keep sighing to God and to long for the safety he promises. “Now” answers affliction; trust the Speaker who places the needy where they long to be.

Calvin: God himself comes forward and declares he is come to deliver the poor. Great emphasis in now: though our safety is in his hand, he does not immediately grant deliverance; his words imply he had been as it were lying still until awakened by the calamities and cries of his people. When tears and groans alone remain, remember the time is at hand for him to rise and execute judgment. Patience belongs to those reckoned among the poor whose cause he takes in hand.

Arising is God’s appointed hour, not a scramble after surprise. Safety was already in his keeping; delay trains hope until he speaks deliverance into effect.

Wesley: Pure—without the least mixture of falsehood; and therefore shall infallibly be fulfilled.

Pure words are trustable words. When flattering lips fill the land, cling to speech that has no dross—seven-times refined promise that will not fail. Believe what God has said and expect fulfillment.

Calvin: God is sure, faithful, and steadfast in his promises; he promises nothing in vain. Whatever he promises in word he will perform in deed. Men at ease praise God’s truth, yet in adversity charge him with not keeping his word. Whenever doubt of his faithfulness steals in, lift this shield: the words are flawless. Silver refined is valued among us; we often prize God’s inestimable word less, and coin dross in our own brain to obscure its brightness.

Purity of the word is the antidote to distrust in delay. The furnace image stoops to our measure; the point is God’s non-deceiving speech, not human alloy added to it.

Wesley: Thou shalt keep them—thy words or promises: these thou wilt observe and keep, both now, and from this generation for ever.

The pure words of v. 6 are kept by the LORD who observes his own speech. Hold the promises; he guards his people by keeping what he said—now and forever against this generation’s lies.

Calvin: animated with holy confidence, David boasts of the certain safety of all the godly, of whom God, who neither can deceive nor lie, avows himself to be the guardian. Keep them points to the poor of whom he spoke; change of number is common—though only one good man remained, he would be kept in perfect safety by God’s grace and protection. Generation names the great multitude of the ungodly, even among the chosen people. War is not for a short time only; yet guardianship is for ever.

Remnant safety does not hang on numbers. God keeps his own against a whole corrupt age; forever answers endless malice.

Wesley: Walk—they fill all places, and go about boldly and securely.

The psalm does not end in denial of present evil. Wicked prowling and exalted vileness remain visible. Keep crying Save, keep trusting pure words, and do not mistake bold security for final victory.

Calvin: the ungodly possess the land and range through every part; wherever I turn my eyes, troops of them appear on every side. Mankind are shamefully oppressed by their tyranny; when the vile are exalted, corruption spreads as disease from the head into the members.

The closing realism sharpens, not cancels, v. 7. Prowling wickedness is why forever-guarding matters; present exaltation of vileness is not the last verdict of the Judge who already said he will arise.