1 > Help, Yahweh; for the godly man ceases. For the faithful fail from among the children of men.
The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil [to come].
transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can't enter. Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him who there was no justice.
Because iniquity will be multiplied, the love of many will grow cold.
Run you back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places of it, if you can find a man, if there are any who does justly, who seeks truth; and I will pardon her.
None sues in righteousness, and none pleads in truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in her, But now murderers. Your silver has become dross, Your wine mixed with water.
God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
Misery is mine! Indeed, I am like one who gathers the summer fruits, as gleanings of the vinyard: There is no cluster of grapes to eat. My soul desires to eat the early fig. The godly man has perished out of the earth, And there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; Every man hunts his brother with a net.
But when he saw that the wind was strong, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!"
They came to him, and woke him up, saying, "Save us, Lord! We are dying!"
> Save me, God, by your name. Vindicate me in your might.
Return, Yahweh. Deliver my soul, And save me for your loving kindness' sake.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 12
Commentary on Psalms 12 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 12
It is supposed that David penned this psalm in Saul's reign, when there was a general decay of honesty and piety both in court and country, which he here complains of to God, and very feelingly, for he himself suffered by the treachery of his false friends and the insolence of his sworn enemies.
Whether this psalm was penned in Saul's reign or no, it is certainly calculated for a bad reign; and perhaps David, in spirit foresaw that some of his successors would bring things to as bad a pass as is here described, and treasured up this psalm for the use of the church then. "O tempora, O mores!-Oh the times! Oh the manners!'
To the chief musician upon Sheminith. A psalm of David.
Psa 12:1-8
This psalm furnishes us with good thoughts for bad times, in which, though the prudent will keep silent (Amos 5:13) because a man may then be made an offender for a word, yet we may comfort ourselves with such suitable meditations and prayers as are here got ready to our hand.
In singing this psalm, and praying it over, we must bewail the general corruption of manners, thank God that things are not worse than they are, but pray and hope that they will be better in God's due time.