When Lies Rule (Psalm 12)
Notes
Transcript
In 2002, the University of Massachusetts conducted a study on lying,
where they discovered that sixty percent of people lied at least once during a ten-minute conversation,
with an average of two to three lies told.
Psychologist Robert Feldman commented on the study saying,
"People tell a considerable number of lies in everyday conversation. It was a very surprising result. We didn't expect lying to be such a common part of daily life.”
But the Bible, and our Psalm tonight,
shows us that this shouldn't surprise us.
Deception is so woven into the fabric of human speech in such a deep way that we barely notice it anymore.
We quickly smooth out the truth.
We flatter people for selfish motives.
We easily say what we think the room wants to hear.
In Psalm 12 is feeling the weight of a world full of lies.
He’s responding to a world where honest speech has become an endangered species.
And he’s lamenting it.
David opens with a cry that sounds almost desperate:
1 Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. 2 Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
David is realizing how deceitful the human heart is.
The ones he thought he could trust, have proven themselves as liars, who use empty talk, smooth talk, and double talk.
Verse 2 says:
“Everyone utters lies to his neighbor"
In the Hebrew, the word for lies here is closer to "emptiness."
David is talking about more than deliberate falsehood.
He’s talking about motives, like insincerity.
But it’s more than that, he’s talking about words that are irresponsible and careless.
This is the idea of words that are used to get the results you want, instead of communicating truth.
Then he adds "with flattering lips"
David is talking about people who use smooth words because they feel good to receive.
But instead of recognizing these as lies, the people gobble them up.
And that’s because flattery is addictive.
10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,
Isaiah, like David, is speaking of people who DO NOT want the truth.
Instead, they want people to tell them what we want to hear.
It’s supply and demand.
The demand is there, so there will always be people who will fill that supply.
Discussion Question:
How do you recognize the difference between genuine encouragement and flattery? What does each one feel like on the receiving end?
Finally David says: "with a double heart they speak."
The Hebrew is literally: “a heart and a heart."
Which is talking about “Two-faced speech.” and “Two-faced thinking.”
And the wild thing about this, is the the deceiver is usually the first person deceived.
Yes, he’s lying, but he’s split in two.
James spoke of this problem when he wrote:
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
The Greek is: “literally two-souled, unstable in all his ways.”
Both David and James are talking about a person running two operating systems at once
But given enough time, eventually neither one can function.
You can't sustain a lie without lying to yourself.
Discussion Question:
As Christians, in what ways is easy for us to lie to others, and ourselves, without even realizing it?
3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts, 4 those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us?”
In these verses David asks God to cut off the flattering lips and the boasting tongue.
And that boast of the wicked is worth reading slowly:
"With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are our own; who is master over us?"
What is the idea behind this claim?
It’s the claim that their words are sovereign.
They answer to no one.
There's no court of righteousness above them.
The tongue is their weapon, their tool, their right,
and they'll use it however they want.
This claim is a tale as old as time.
In Genesis 3, the serpent did this.
And in Revelation 13, the mouth of the beast does it.
At it’s core, lying is Satanic.
44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
This is why lying is such a serious thing.
5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!
Question:
What does mean if a professing Christian is a chronic liar?
In verses 5-6, we find something pretty unique in the Bible.
We find God responding to David’s pleas.
5 “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the Lord; “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.” 6 The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.
Throughout the Psalm, God has been silent so far.
In verses 1-4,
David cries out,
describes the problem,
names the enemy.
But here the Lord responds, saying: “I see it. Don’t worry, I will take action.”
God is not blind to the deceitfulness of man.
He hears the groaning of the vulnerable,
the undefended,
the ones most hurt by lies.
And what is the solution?
Verse 6.
In contrast to human speech that is empty, smooth, and double-talk,
the word of the Lord is pure and refined like silver.
It has NO impurity or dross at all!
When it says that it’s been purified seven times what does that mean?
Were God’s words ever corrupt?
7 times = perfection.
The point is, God’s Word is perfect.
Have you ever stopped to think about that?
As creatures who are so prone to lying, our God has never lied to us even once?
Question:
How should the purity of God’s speech change the way we live?
7 You, O Lord, will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever. 8 On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the children of man.
Here David is recognizing that it a midst of a world of lies.
God will guard his people, from this generation to forever.
And while God has already promised to do that,
Verse 8 ends the same way it opened.
8 On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the children of man.
David’s circumstances haven’t changes:
world still broken, dangerous, and full of lies.
But God has spoken, and that’s enough.
He sees the vulnerable.
He intends to act.
His word is pure even when human speech is rotten.
Question:
So what is this Psalm teaching us?
Psalm 12 gives us hopeful truth in the midst a dark and crooked generation.
God’s word is true.
He sees what's happening and He will act.
In the meantime, we can and must be people whose speech reflects our heavenly Father’s.
