Ps. 12
Help / Yhwh / for the faithful one / has come / to an end,
For the honest persons / have disappeared / from among / the sons of man.
In several of the previous psalms, especially David’s lament over Absalom’s advance, the speaker certainly implied a sense of being alone. However, here, the note is explicitly struck, and at the opening of the psalm. The cry for help, here, is not so much because of the impending doom of the wicked, but because the psalmist does not see any other people of covenant faithfulness around him. He is alone in a crowd.
Note also, that the ‘wicked’ are not engaged in violence. A first reading of this psalm may give the impression that the psalmist is cowering, and hiding (seeking ‘refuge’ in Yhwh). This, however, does not seem to be the case.
With this in mind, these verses are not speaking about the wicked overcoming the faithful, but the faithful disappearing (or becoming) into the wicked. There is no kidnapping, no abduction--this psalmist is standing at the end of the line and he has watched as all of those in front of him, those who he thought were covenant partners (honest and faithful) exit and join the wicked.
I do not sense that he is concerned he might be next; he is too angry for that and there is none of that type of introspection. This, however, is not to say that he is not sensing himself to be profoundly alone; one is never more aware of their alienation than when they are in a group of people they have nothing in common with (many of whom used to be his friends).
They speak / vanity / each man / with his neighbor;
With flattering lip / and / double heart / they speak.
It is an interesting accusation: the words they speak to each other are emptiness. And these words are ‘flattery’. Notice the poetic contrast between flattering ‘lip’ and a double ‘heart’. It is not the lips that are ‘double’ (as is literally the case) but the heart itself.
“Flattery” if often thought of as an empty compliment. To those engaged in it, and to the unperceptive outsider, these men’s speech would actually appear very kind, very ‘uplifting’, ‘positive’ and, probably, very polite. The psalmist does not describe these men as ‘tearing each other down’; no, they are ‘focused on the positive’ apparently. The problem is that all of this ‘positivity’ is, in fact, emptiness; it is the act of ‘building up’ that is the emptiness itself (that is the vanity). Both of these lines are saying the same thing in two different ways.
Just as they speak, they are spoken to. The word ‘neighbor’ is a purely relational term: there is no ‘neighbor’ if there is not another person (just as there is no ‘father’ if there is no ‘son’). So, if each neighbor is spoken to, each neighbor also speaks. There are no ‘victims’ in this verse (there will be later). They are all perpetrators and victims together. Like some vicious circle, the vanity and flattery, passes one to another.
And understand too, that this description is coming from the psalmist. He is incredibly upset by these words; this is obviously not the description one would get from any of these men.
Let Yhwh / cut off / all flattering lips,
The tongue / that speaks / great words,
Those / who have said / “By our tongue / we will / establish strength.
Our lips / are our own! / Who will be / our master?”
As we have seen in the past, the punishment always fit’s the crime. If the mouth is evil, then the psalmist calls for the Yhwh to literally rip the lips off of these men and tear our their tongues. It is, by far, the most brutal and violent image in the psalm. Also, as with many other requests for judgment, it is initiated by the words “Let Yhwh…”. There is the sense in these words of allowing Yhwh full reign, an open field and a total lack of restraint. Perhaps this is why the image is so violent: all of the rage at these men has been pent up and is now let free.
Is it of significance that the ‘tongue’ now comes in to play? Before it was only the lips and the double heart. Now the tongue is that weapon by which the wicked will ‘establish strength’. Notice too, in their speech, how much ‘ownership’ is asserted: by our tongue we establish strength. Our lips are our own! Who will be our master?” This is the assertion of utter self-control and freedom. Nothing intervenes between their speech; there is no space for any interruption. Their words, to them, accomplish their goal; and, most importantly, their words are their own and therefore their goals are their own. There would be nothing, as a first-fruit, to turn over to (any) god. Truly, everything begins and ends with them.
In this context, it is interesting to note this: these words of the wicked sound very much like the words used in other stories of
No wonder this psalmist is so alone.
Because of the devastation / of the afflicted / because of the groaning / of the poor,
I will / set him / in safety. / I will / shine forth / for him.”
Here we are given the first indication of the fact that this speech has, in fact, entailed violence and/or oppression. The building erected by these ‘great words’ has come on the backs, and at the expense of the ‘afflicted’ and ‘the poor’. Apparently, these men’s words were not the only ones: the ‘groaning’ of the poor pierced their veil and went up to Yhwh. Likewise, it the ‘devastation’ of the afflicted Yhwh recognizes. Are we to see here the fact that Yhwh both ‘sees’ the devastation and ‘hears’ the groaning of the poor? That as much as these men attempted to cast a net of words over their wickedness, Yhwh was still able to not just hear, but also see what they were doing?
There is another important aspect to this verse that will become more apparent in the following verses: these are the only words directly uttered by Yhwh in the psalm. And they are words of deliverance, of raising up his servant, and of his ‘shining forth’ for him. In answer to the ‘groaning’ of the poor (and, in answer to the psalmist) Yhwh will lift up and ‘set in safety’ a man; and ‘for him’ Yhwh will shine forth. This image of ‘shining forth’ is important for a couple of reasons. When Yhwh appears, it is not only in the sense of ‘making himself known’. For most (if not all) of Yhwh’s theophanys, he ‘shows himself’--shines forth--in order to enact the deliverance of his people. It is not simply a revealing of ‘his nature’, but an act of kingly rescue (incidentally, this would ‘shed a lot of light’ on the transfiguration of Jesus…). It is, in this regard, an act of judgment (as we have seen, ‘judgment’ is both deliverance and punishment at the same time). To ‘shine forth’ then is Yhwh’s revealing of his absolute mastery and the fact that he is judge; that ‘judgment’ resides in him. Yhwh’s ‘glory’ then is not something that is merely physical, or tangible, but something that also points to, or embodies, this sense of sovereign, judging authority. It is, in this way, the ‘glory’ of a king. It is both ‘aesthetic’ (in the sense of it being an object of wonder and beauty) and ‘ethical’ (in the sense that it utterly takes over and places ‘under judgment’ those who stand in its sphere). It is not merely something to be contemplated, but something to obeyed.
The utterances/ of Yhwh / are pure utterances,
Silver / refined / in a furnace
Gold / purified / seven times.
You, / O Yhwh / will watch / us,
You, / will guard / us / from / this generation / for ever.
To further the reflections above: these ‘utterances’ of Yhwh stand in stark contrast to the wicked precisely because they are words of deliverance and justice. The psalmist uses imagery of metal refinement to describe Yhwh’s speech: refining and purifying. Yet, again, these are not words that point merely to Yhwh’s nature, as such, but to his act of deliverance. They are ‘pure’ and ‘refined’ because they lift up a servant to deliver the oppressed, the poor, and the afflicted.
This observation is confirmed by the fact that the purity of his utterances is immediately followed by Yhwh ‘watching over us’ and ‘guarding us’ from ‘this generation’. Just as his words are purified from all dross, so too will they remove the ‘dross of the wicked’ from the poor, oppressed and afflicted. They will become within his people what they, themselves, are: a purifying act of holiness.
Lastly, the pick up a thread from before: these utterances are not merely ‘effective’ (accomplishing deliverance). They are, themselves, also ‘gold’ and ‘silver’. Just as Yhwh ‘shines forth’ in an act of visible beauty and glory, so too are his words to be compared to the most valuable of all earthly objects.
Yhwh’s words have this twin ability of being, in themselves, absolute purity and, also, words that are not merely objects of contemplation but active forces for deliverance: they are both the aesthetic (in themselves they are wonderful and beautiful) and ‘ethical’ (commanding respect, loyalty and obedience).
I wonder if the psalmist uses the word “utterance” rather than ‘words’ or ‘speech’ in order to draw a further distinction between what Yhwh says and the wicked; he doesn’t even see them engaged, almost, in the same behavior.
All around / the wicked / strut about,
As the vileness / of the sons of man / is exalted.
This is a strange concluding verse. I feel as if an editor, or a scribe, tacked this on. It is poetic, though. The use of the word ‘strutting’ to describe the gait of the wicked is particularly apt in light of the fact that their words are seen as ‘hubris’; they are like peacock’s strutting around the land, oblivious to the danger they are in. Likewise, the use of the ‘vileness’ to now describe their words is apt; we have moved into a description of them, as they are, rather than their words.
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