The Faithful Have Vanished (Psalm 12)

Announcements

Don’t forget that this is our last Wednesday evening Bible Study & Prayer time for 2021. The last two weeks of 2021 has special services for the holidays instead of our typical Wednesday evening service.

On December 24th, join us for our Christmas Eve Carols & Lessons at 7pm in the Auditorium. Following the service we’ll have a dessert social in the Activity Room.

On December 31st, join us for our New Year’s Eve Celebration—it isn’t so much a service, as it’s really just a fellowship opportunity to enjoy food, enjoy each other’s company and ring in the new year.

Please be aware on January 2nd, after the Sunday AM Worship Service, we’ll have a quarterly business meeting.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the LORD through your giving. To help you give, we have three ways for you to do so (1) in-person giving can be done at the offering box, debit, credit, and ACH transfers can be done either by texting 84321 with your $[amount] or by visiting www.gapb.church and selecting “Giving” in the Menu bar. Everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon (Psalm 12)

Introduction

If you have your Bible with you this evening, please turn it to Psalm 12.

This evening’s message continues our series in the book of psalms. And we’re studying Psalm 12, which is a shorter psalm that’s written by David. We aren’t sure when this psalm was written, but much like David’s previous psalms, the general nature of this psalm allows us to apply it to us more broadly. We know that this was originally written to be sung, we see that in the superscription of the text “To the choirmaster: according to the Sheminith. A Psalm of David.” It was apparently written during a time in which David felt opposition from those that not only opposed him but that rejected God. And they utilized their tongues or their voice to lie to and manipulate people. There is a strong sense of oppression of the poor and needy in this text, which is important for us to be aware of as well.

Let’s take a moment to read Psalm 12 together and then we’ll dig into the passage.

Psalm 12 ESV

To the choirmaster: according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David. 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. 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?” 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. 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.

As we study this passage together, we’re going to break it into two parts, though arguably, the two parts almost run together. (1) Vs. 1-4 is a Prayer for Deliverance and (2) Vs. 5-8 starts with assurance that God will deliver and ends with Confidence in God’s Word. Both sections of this passage speak of a situation in David’s life in which it seemed as if all the people who trusted in the LORD had disappeared and the evidence of that is seen in how the people utilized their tongues to lie and trick each other. The first section focuses on describing these people, whereas the second section focuses on David’s confidence in God, God’s Word, and the eventual judgment of the wicked. In our understanding of the passage this evening, we’ll view David’s words from his perspective and consider our own world in which people do precisely the same wickedness and we’ll hopefully be encouraged and exhorted to place our own confidence in God’s Word.

Prayer for Illumination

Prayer for Deliverance (1-4)

Psalm 12 is a psalm of David and in Psalm 12, David starts with these words, “Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.”

That word that’s translated as save can also be translated as help with the idea that David is crying out for God to come and save him.

In particular, the word here carries the connotation of saving someone from ruin, destruction, or harm. So, David has a very real sense that his life was in danger or that he is facing imminent destruction.

And that very real sense of danger or destruction is primarily due to what David says is a lack of godly and faithful people.

Now I will say that this is hyperbolic in some sense. David is exaggerating at least a little bit, because we’re told elsewhere in Scripture (like Isaiah 10) that there’s always a remnant that genuinely believes; however, what David is telling us is that there is truly just a remnant of believers during the time of his writing of this psalm.

For the vast majority of people within his context were godless and faithless.

Now, like I mentioned in the introduction, we aren’t particularly sure when this psalm was written, but I’m certain that we can all think of times in which we’ve faced similar situations in our own lives.

We all have experienced situations in which we genuinely have a difficult time finding likeminded believers who seek to follow the LORD wholeheartedly—this could happen at work, or it could happen in school, and unfortunately, it can happen at the local church level (that is part of the reason why Natalie and I endeavored to plant Grace & Peace).

And in that difficulty of trying to find likeminded believers, we can experience opposition from those that reject Jesus—that opposition can come in a similar way to the opposition that David shows us as he continues in this passage.

And it is this opposition from godless and faithless people that causes David to cry out to the LORD.

David is praying to the LORD and he brings forth a complaint that there are no godly people left, that the faithful have vanished.

And then in Vs. 2-4, he then describes what the people who are left are like—and its in these verses that we get a description of these people that focuses on their speech and by focusing on their speech it reveals to us their hearts.

Vs. 2, starts with “Everyone utters lies to his neighbors; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.” In Vs. 2, David describes these people based on the way that they speak to one another and the description isn’t good, it’s filled with sinfulness.

The idea of everyone uttering lies to his neighbor goes further than them not just telling the truth to one another. The word translated as lies carries the connotation of vain or empty words. So, it isn’t just lying to one another, it is the idea of lying along with being insincere or irresponsible—it is the concept of lying with malicious intent for the purpose of the liar achieving gain.

“With flattering lips” refers to the idea of someone who is a smooth talker. Think of the Professor Harold Hill from the Music Man or maybe even Worldly Wiseman from Pilgrim’s Progress who attempt to trick people through their words to intentionally deceive them for their own gain.

With “a double heart” speaks of their own condition. There’s an old adage that if you lie enough, you’ll begin to believe your own lies.

And what Vs. 2 is describing is a group of people who are godless and faithless who intentionally deceive and manipulate other people enough that they believe their own lies—I think we can all picture people that we know of in our own lives like this, that reject the truth, deceive and manipulate people, and believe their own lies.

In Vs. 3, David interjects a request to the LORD while continuing the prayer for deliverance. “May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts, those who say, ‘With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us?” David both asks God to do something about these people while continuing to describe these people.

The description of the people continues with them making great boasts with their tongues. They make the statement, “with our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us?”

This sounds unusual to us today because we typically don’t speak in the same way, but let me explain it like this:

These people are making the boast that they will prevail and that no one will be master over them.

In many ways, this is the same idea of what happened with the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 11:4, its revealed to us that the reasoning for the building of the tower was so that the people could make for themselves and essentially elevate themselves above the LORD.

What these godless and faithless people in Psalm 12 are saying is that there is no one over us, we are our own people and we will prevail through the power of our tongues and lips.

They’re boasting in their own arrogance—they think they are great and mighty and so they proclaim themselves to be great and mighty

Which is what prompts David to pray for the LORD to “cut off all flattering lips” to cut off the tongue that makes great boasts.

This is a metaphorical request from David for the LORD to cut off their lips and tongues, what he means by this prayer is two-fold:

He asks God to cut off their lips and tongues, which essentially means that he wants God to stop their boasting, which they clearly think no one can stop them

And he asks God to do this because he knows that despite their great boasting, God is still perfectly able and capable to stop them from boasting and making false statements like this.

So, David describes his situation as one in which he is surrounded with people who reject God and speak nothing but lies in such a way to manipulate and hurt other people. He’s found himself in such a situation that he feels alone and he fears for his own life, but even in the midst of such a despairing description, he can’t help but to express just a hint of hope and trust in the LORD. That bit of hope and trust in God compels him to make his second request, for the godless and faithless people to be quieted; his first being a request for help from the LORD. In the remaining few verses, we hear from God himself, which then changes David from expressing discomfort and fear to confidence in God’s Word. Let’s re-read Vs. 5-8:

Confidence in God’s Word (5-8)

Psalm 12:5–8 ESV

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. 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.

God’s response to David’s prayer is found in vs. 5, “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise;” “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”

God responds to David’s prayer by making the statement that he will arise because the poor are plundered and because the needy groan. And in doing so, he’s really putting his focus on one group of people described in two different ways.

We can really describe this group of people with one word—oppressed. Let me be clear, that the issue at hand isn’t that the people are poor and needy, though God does encourage and exhort the church to care for those that struggle both with finances and health, but that isn’t the emphasis here.

God isn’t responding in this situation just because there are people who are struggling financially and are needy—no where in Scripture are we told that we won’t struggle financially and we won’t ever find ourselves in need.

In fact, the Bible speaks at length about the necessity of us being content even when we don’t have anything and we find ourselves completely in need and desperate.

God is responding in vs. 5, because those that are godless and faithless, who are smooth talkers and manipulative, are oppressing those who are poor and needy.

It is because those who are already poor are being plundered by the godless and faithless; it is because those who are already needy are groaning in their need that compels God to respond.

And he responds by promising to “place [them] in the safety for which he longs.”

God’s response to David’s prayer and really to the oppression of the poor compels David to place his confidence in God’s Word through vss. 6-8. “The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. You, O Lord, will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever. On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the children of man.”

David defines God’s words as pure and then he describes the purity of God’s words “like silver refined in a furnace . . . purified seven times.”

The word pure carries the idea of being ceremonially clean, but I think in light of how the godless and the faithless are in vs. 1-4, it also carries along the idea that what God says is in contrast to what they say.

Whereas the godless and the faithless speak with lies, smooth talk, and manipulation, God speaks the truth without ulterior motive. What he says, you can trust because he himself is trustworthy.

And he’s utilizing the idea of silver being refined to describe how pure God’s Word is because its something that many people in that time period would be familiar with. In our modern-day world, we don’t necessarily have experience with this type of industry, so let me just explain the process a bit.

When purifying metals, the metallurgist utilizes fire at an extremely high temperature to melt the metal down and once the metal is melted down, the impurities within the metal start to run out.

Of course, the more times that you do this, the more impurities come out of the metal until you’re left with that substance alone, in this case silver.

The psalmist is making the argument that God’s words are like metal that had been purified seven times, which gives the impression that what God says is so pure it is like metal that has gone through the process of purification so many times that there is no impurity left in the metal.

God’s words aren’t filled with lies, they aren’t filled with smooth talking, and manipulation. God speaks truth because he is truth.

And because God’s words are truthful and pure, David can make the next statement, “You, O Lord, will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever.”

When he says, “You, O Lord, will keep them” he’s referring to God’s words themselves. In this situation, David is specifically referring to God’s words to take the oppressed and place them in the safety that they desire.

We know this from context that God “will guard [them] from this generation forever.” However, the principle remains the same. We serve a God that regardless of what he’s talking about, keeps his word—in this passage, it concerns those that are being oppressed by the godless and faithless, but elsewhere, it applies to what God promises his people, his promise to return, his promise to finish what he has started within you, his desire for people to follow him and so on and so on.

The principle remains the same that God will keep his words, which I cannot emphasize enough.

And this is a bit of a rabbit trail, but it is worth us going on this rabbit trail. David is expressing the truth that God’s Word is trustworthy because God himself is trustworthy, which is the exact opposite of how we usually feel when we face a situation like what David is describing in Psalm 12.

So, consider the situation that David describes—one in which he feels as if there are no people living righteously near him. No one believes; they’re godless and faithless. In fact, those that are around him are liars, who manipulate and deceive the poor and those in need.

Now consider when you’ve faced a situation like this—it might not be entirely the same, but we’ve all been in similar situations.

Perhaps its at work, you’re the only one who claims to believe in Jesus (or at least, you’re the only one who lives like you believe in Jesus). You feel like everyone around you lies and are two-faced; your boss is manipulative and overworks everyone.

Maybe its at school—you’re the only student who seems to try and follow what God says in his word. The other students could care less about Jesus. Maybe your professor or teacher has taken it open himself to try and prove God wrong and everyone seems opposed to you.

The temptation is to feel as if you are utterly and completely alone. The temptation would be to assume that you’re the only righteous person and everyone else is wrong and in many cases simply evil. The temptation would be to rely solely on yourself to get yourself through that situation. The temptation is to wallow in self-pity and disparagement.

David expresses concern that he is the only righteous person, that the rest are godless and faithless (and he may be right in that aspect), however, he doesn’t wallow in self-pity. He expresses his concern to God, he prays, and then he focuses his hope in God, in particular in God’s Word (we’ll come back to that idea later).

Vs. 6-7 emphasizes the truth that God keeps his Word and then David closes this psalm, with one last sentence.

Vs. 8, “On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the children of man.”

Now, in the ESV, this last verse seems almost disjointed—almost like its an afterthought of some sort, but let me help you understand it.

The ESV seems as if the verse is starting a whole new independent clause, but I think the NLT has the right idea with its translation of this passage. In the NLT, this verse is translated as a dependent clause with vs. 7, which simply means that the two verses are connected. And what the NLT says concerning these two verses is this: “Therefore, LORD, we know you will protect the oppressed, preserving them forever from this lying generation, even though the wicked strut about, and evil is praised throughout the land.”

Did you catch those two words that introduce vs. 8 in the NLT—even though.

Or in other words, this isn’t disjointed, this is inherently connected with vs. 7 and we can understand this as a sort of resolve from David concerning all that he has already said.

David finds himself in a situation in life in which people who are godless and faithless are manipulating and hurting people. He finds himself in a situation in which he seems like he’s all alone, but even in the midst of seemingly being along, he reminds himself that God keeps his Word in vss. 5-7.

And then in vs. 8, he concludes with the truth that even though the wicked are all around, even though vileness is praised among the people, he knows that God will keep his Word. He knows that God will protect the oppressed; he knows that God will place the oppressed in a place of safety.

Why does he know this? Because he knows that God himself is trustworthy, thus, whatever God says is true.

Even if what’s happening around him seems to be filled with sin, vileness, and evil, God still keeps his Word.

Which is something that I think is vitally important for us to remember today. We live in a world that is filled with sin and evil. We live in a world in which those who reject God and those who are faithless seem to be all around us and in pride those that reject God act as if they can do no wrong.

We live in a world in which those who are poor and those who are needy are oppressed. That last phrase in vs. 8 “evil is praised throughout the land.” Is precisely what’s going on in our world today—sin is taught as good, those who don’t participate in particular sins are told to be accepting of those sins, and the Bible has harsh words against this:

Isaiah 5:20-23, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!”

Isaiah continues by describing the incoming judgment to those who call evil good and good evil as fire devours them for rejecting the Law of the God and despising the Word of the Holy One of Israel. There is swift impending judgment to those who subvert the truth and reject God while teaching that evil is good and good is evil.

Paul makes a similar statement in Romans 1:18-32, which I know is long, but I think it’s worth us reading:

Romans 1:18–32 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

People of God have always been surrounded by unbelievers who reject God, who subvert the truth, who seek to do sin, and praises evil. David speaks of in Psalm 12, Paul speaks of it in Romans 1, and we can see it in our modern-world just by turning on evil.

But like David, we know that God will protect the oppressed, he will preserve them from this lying generation. We know that God does this because his promises are pure, his Word is sure.

Which leads us in our last few minutes to our application for this passage. Because of the shorter nature of this psalm, we’re going to take it as one unit instead of breaking it up into multiple pieces. I think to break it up into sections for the application would be to miss the point of the psalm itself, however, we are going to look at the psalm in two ways: (1) we’re going to look at this psalm didactically as we learn to apply what Psalm 12 teaches us and (2) we’re going to look at how we can pray this psalm.

Application

Psalm 12 provides us with both significant teaches that are vitally important for our Christian life as well as a model of prayer when we feel alone and surrounded by people who do wicked things. Like I mentioned in the introduction, we aren’t certain as to when David wrote this psalm because the psalm itself doesn’t tell us when he wrote the psalm, however, because of its generality, it makes it far easier for us to apply it to our lives today. David finds himself in which he seems alone because all the people around him are smooth talking and deceitful. They’re so filled with lies that they’ve even deceived themselves and they are certain in their arrogance that they can continue lying because no one can stop them. With their lying, they’ve hurt people, they’ve manipulated people, and they’ve oppressed people. And yet, David expresses confidence and trust in God based on God’s Word itself. So, how do we go about applying this?

Applying what Psalm 12 Teaches

Much like David, we can find ourselves in a situation in which we feel all alone and that those around us are unrighteous, godless, and faithless. Psalm 12 teaches us that this is actually a common issue and considering Romans 1 also speaks of the same problem, it’s clear that there will always be times in which we feel this way.

Psalm 12 makes it clear that on this side of eternity, there will always be those that are wicked, there will always be those that hurt and manipulate others, there will always be people who praise evil and reject good.

And Psalm 12 makes it clear that those who are truly following Christ will have to deal with these people described as liars and manipulators who reject the truth and ultimately reject God.

Now, in David’s scenario, it seems as if there’s some danger to his own life, which is why in vs. 1, he cries out to the Lord for help, but in your situation, you might not feel as if your life is inherently in danger.

You might not feel as if your life is in danger, but you might feel some amount of oppression from those that are wicked and are manipulating you or lying to you. It might be situation at work, it could be a situation at home, or it could be a situation at school.

Regardless of the details, your life may not be in danger, but you might feel that those around you are directly opposing you.

And in those sorts of situations, it is tempting to feel as if you’re all alone. It is tempting to feel as if you’re the only one seeking to live life according to Scripture and that there is no one else seeking truth whatsoever.

So, what should you do in these situations?

First, be aware that there will always be those who reject Jesus and there will always be those who oppose you for accepting Jesus. In fact, the Bible teaches us that very few people actually do accept Jesus—"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (NASB). Be aware, very few people actually do believe in Jesus—even amongst people who regularly go to church and claim to believe in Jesus.

Second, while it may be tempting to wallow in self-pity when we find ourselves in positions like this (surrounded by unbelievers who reject God and oppose us), remaining in that self-pity mode really does no good for us. In fact, while self-examination and awareness of oneself is good and right, self-pity is a manifestation of our own pride. There are a series of sins that we can call self-sins—self-confidence, self-seeking, self-admiration, self-indulgence, self-absorption, and self-love, that while they seem to be good things can very easily lead to pride and ruin. When we wallow in self-pity, we’ve elevated our own importance and while we may never say it with these words, what we essentially say when we wallow in self-pity is “I don’t deserve this, I deserve better,” “I shouldn’t have to deal with this, I’m worth more,” or “God is wrong to make me have to go through this, who does he think I am?” To wallow in self-pity while dealing with those who oppose us can very easily lead us to sin. Thus, be aware that people will oppose you because they oppose Jesus and when it happens don’t wallow in self-pity because self-pity can lead you to sin.

Instead, in these situations, what should our response be? It’s very similar to what David has continuously been doing throughout all his psalms in which he finds himself in difficult situations:

Cry out to the LORD for help,

Express yourself to the LORD

And then rely on God’s Words alone.

Now, I’ve said that a lot throughout our series, but you might ask yourself, “how exactly do I do these things?” So, let me help you with that:

Both the “Cry out to the LORD for help” and “express yourself to the LORD” parts I’m going to save until we talk about Praying Psalm 12, but I do want us to talk about relying on God’s Words alone now.

Often when we find ourselves in great distress, we don’t turn to God and we don’t turn to his Word. Our typical response in times of great distress is to wallow in self-pity and then turn to people or substances, or food, or really anything other than God.

And what happens when we do turn to people or substances, food, or anything other than God is that for a moment, those things seem to make things better—your friends will help lift you back up or those substances will alleviate some of the pain, or to food releases enough endorphins in your brain to make you feel better; but the problem is that none of those things and people were meant to sustain us completely or fully.

Thus the moment your friends leave, those substances wear off, or the food passes through your system, you find yourself wallowing in self-pity and in great distress again.

So, you typically return to your friends, substances, or objects to achieve that same amount of happiness and you find that the same amount is never enough, and you need more and more—this is the science of addition.

In reality, when we find ourselves in times that are distressing, our first response shouldn’t be to wallow in self-pity or turn to friends, substances, or objects, but to run to God through Jesus Christ and to cry out to him and to rely on him.

But the truth is that many of us as self-proclaimed Christians in the modern world, don’t know how to rely on God through Jesus because we don’t really know anything about him. And quite frankly, most of us don’t know anything about him because we simply haven’t made the effort to know anything about him.

Many self-proclaimed believers today completely rely on their pastor to tell them about God and they don’t bother to learn about God themselves—so many self-proclaimed believers today only learn about God once or twice a week for maybe an hour and a half.

Then the rest of the week, they learn about the Kardashians, Marvel super heroes, Fox News, or any other TV show that you can think of. US News says that the average American spends about 3 hours a day watching TV.

That’s about 21 hours a week and if that average American works 40 hours a week, goes to church twice a week, and sleeps eight hours a day, that means the average American spends:

33% of their week sleeping.

24% of their week working.

13% of their week watching TV.

And maybe 4% of their time learning about God.

Do you see what the problem is? It is a fundamental misplacement of values when TV takes up more of your week than God does.

How can you rely on a God that you barely even know and you don’t take the time or effort to learn more about him and grow that relationship that you have with him? You can’t.

It’s no wonder then that so many people when they find themselves in distressing situations turn to everything other than God himself. And it’s no wonder that so many people when the wallow in self-pity turn to everything other than God’s Word.

But what does David say about God’s Words? “The words of the LORD are pure . . . You, LORD, will keep them.”

The words of God are pure and he keeps them, but the majority of self-proclaimed Christians spend less than 4% of their week reading, learning, and growing from it.

Relying on God’s Word takes knowing God’s Word; until you start learning God’s Word, you can’t rely on it.

Thus, the first application that I have for you this evening is to learn to understand God’s Word, apply his Word, and rely on his Word.

You do this by reading God’s Word, understand his Word, and applying his Word to your life today.

If you don’t do this, then you can’t possibly rely on God’s Word because you don’t actually know God’s Word.

When you start relying on God’s Word, then it’s actually far easier for you to do the rest of the application that I have for you this evening. Praying Psalm 12 is significantly more potent when you actually rely on God’s Word because David himself appeals to the trustworthy of God’s Word. Thus, the prayer in Psalm 12 doesn’t make sense unless you are trusting in God and believing in his Word.

In times of great distress, Psalm 12 gives us a model of prayer for us to emulate and its a simple model:

Cry out to the LORD—Prayer starts with crying out to God. Ask God for help, for protection, for safety. Ask him for provision and for you to see this time of great distress as an opportunity for you to trust in him and rely on his Word. Recognize that everything that occurs is going to be utilized by God to make you more like His Son, which means even the times of great distress are utilized by God to mature you spiritually. So, cry out to the LORD when you need help.

Express yourself reverently—And I’m utilizing the word reverently on purpose. We always must remember that God is God and thus, there are proper ways to talk with God and commune with him. However, God doesn’t expect our prayers to be stoic or even contradictory to our life situation. If life is presently hard, cry out to God and tell him that life is hard and you need his help. If life is distressing, cry out to God and tell God that you can’t handle it without him. Don’t be afraid to tell God how you feel, just do it reverently always remembering that he is God.

And finally, appeal to God and his Words—God’s Words are pure and he keeps his Word.

What this looks like in a very real and practical way is this: when you face time of great distress—slow down and pause, take a deep breath and then pray.

Father God, I need your help; life isn’t going the way that I thought that it would. In fact, life feels terrible and I don’t know what to do, but I know God that your word tells us that you know all things and that you are completely sovereign in all things. So, I trust you to do what you think is best in my life.

Dear God, I’m facing opposition from people that I thought were once my friends. I’ve contemplated why they might be opposing me and I don’t think that I’ve done anything to warrant their opposition, however, if I did, please convict me of sin so that I can repent; and please draw me closer to you so that I trust and rely on you and your word completely.

In times of distress, cry out to God, express yourself reverently, and depend on him and his Word.

Put simply, Psalm 12 teaches us that (1) there are always going to be people who reject God and oppose us for believing in God, (2) when we find ourselves in situations in which we are opposed and in distress, we need to cry out to God, express ourselves reverently, and depend wholly on him and His Word.

Prayer Requests

Bill Stiver—surgery on the 29th

Caleb Miller - Medical Issues

Alan Wisor—Medical Issues

Deane Herbst—Covid

Pray for the Fellowship Church in State College

Pray for the remaining renovation work

Pray for our church’s growth

Pray that we will continue reaching those in Central Pennsylvania to make mature believers of Jesus Christ.