It Starts Small

I have been spending most of this year in Psalms. I read it through, one chapter a day, but I have gone back into Psalms to look deeper. I am thankful for this biblical example of David speaking out honestly in this prayer to God. I can say, I enjoy reading David’s prayers, and I am so encouraged by what David prays.

David does not stop there. The first biblical response to evil is to speak honestly to God about that evil. The second response to evil is to ask God to intervene.

I heard someone tell a story of being trapped in an elevator with a group of people. The elevator stopped and the buttons wouldn’t work. The people began to panic. They started to bang on the walls and screamed, “Help! Help! Can somebody hear us? Will you save us? We’re stuck in this elevator.” She said people started to go crazy, getting claustrophobic, not knowing what was going to happen or how long they would be stuck in there.

She then walked over, flipped open a latch, pulled out a phone and waited for a voice on the other end of the line. Sure enough, someone picked up and said, “Hello. Is everything okay?” Tony Evans said, “Hey, we’re stuck here in this elevator between these two floors. Would you please come help us?” The person said, “Yes, we’ll be right there.” Help came and freed them from their hostage situation. The people in that elevator forgot they had a direct line to the security department that could help them out.

How many times do we forget the same thing?

We forget we have a direct line to God. We forget, because we get into a hard situation and get so overwhelmed. We bang on the proverbial walls and start screaming out, “Help! Help! Is anyone there to help me?” We forget that we can take it straight to the Lord.

I’ve had my own experiences of wondering, “How am I going to deal with this?” I remember times going to the quiet of the back pourch, saying, “Lord, what am I going to do in this situation?” Then I realized that I was asking the wrong question. My prayer then turned into, “Lord, You are in control, so I can trust You to take care of this. Would You please intervene in this area?”

In our passage today, David picks up the proverbial emergency phone and asks God to intervene. Let’s continue reading at verse three:

³ May the Lord cut off all flattering lips
and the tongue that speaks boastfully.
⁴ They say, “Through our tongues we have power;
our lips are our own—who can be our master?”

Psalm 12:3-4

What does David mean here by cutting off “all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks boastfully”? The parallelisms here between verses three and four suggest this is a figure of speech called a synecdoche, where parts of the body refer to the whole person.

W all might have heard the example of a ship captain saying, “All hands on deck.” Does he expect to see a bunch of fingers and thumbs? No, he wants to see the sailors come onto the deck to help out with whatever is going on. In the same way, David is speaking of lips and tongues, referring to people who are flatterers and boasters.

When we think about the consequences David is asking about—cutting these people off from God’s people or putting them to death—it may seem like a really harsh prayer, until we realize the impact of false words, flattery and bribery. Liars and boasters can do far more damage when they do things like pervert the gospel. Those who listen to false teachers may lose their eternal souls if they die with an incorrect understanding of the gospel.

When Jude, the second to the last book of the Bible, warns us that false teachers will creep into the church, he describes them with almost these very same words from Psalm 12.

These people are discontented grumblers, living according to their desires; their mouths utter arrogant words, flattering people for their own advantage.

Jude 1:16

These teachers are not only going to condemn themselves, but they drag others into the fires of hell along with them. So when we consider the damage deceivers can do with the tongue, David’s harsh words make more sense. The stakes are so high that the punishment must fit the crime.

Here’s the thing.

We can’t just apply these standards of justice to others without looking at ourselves.

We can’t just think, “Oh, there’s evil going on out there; it’s those other people who are doing bad things.” We need to recognize the times when we are at fault. God does not want to see those things happening in our lives either. We need Him to deal with us to bring us closer to Him and sanctify us by the power of His Holy Spirit. According to James, our tongue is a restless evil that makes great boasts. We have to remember that God will not only righteously judge those out there, but also us in here. He will look at us and hold us to a high standard as His children.

David wants God to deal righteously with those who are dishing out flattery, boasting and pride. What does it look like for us to ask God to intervene in these matters? As I mentioned earlier, we can bring our struggles before the Lord and ask God to take care of these things. When we see injustice in the world, we should bring that before God.

We should also recognize when we need God to work in our own hearts. We need God to intervene in our lives, but thankfully, through the work of Jesus Christ, God made a way for us not to be cut off from Himself or His people, not to deserve death any longer as a consequence of our sins.

This is the good news—the gospel—that through faith in Jesus and repentance from our sin, God creates in us a clean heart that no longer deserves the judgment we deserve. Let’s praise God for this salvation. Let’s praise God that He is able to save us from our own wrongdoing and also ask God to deal with the wrongs in our world.