Psalm 12-14: Yahweh Speaks

Psalms twelve through fourteen are linked to each other and also to several of the previous psalms. They focus on situations where evil is spreading fast throughout the community, even winning. The psalmist graphically details the evil talk/actions and its effect on the vulnerable. These prayers (songs) desperately cry for relief. But, even when God speaks, resolution seems far off. All seems lost. Despite all of this, the psalmist continues to trust, expect, and praise. These psalms apply today, just as they did throughout time.

Psalm 12 For the Chief Musician;
Upon an eight-stringed lyre.
A Psalm of David.

¹Help, Yahweh; for the godly man ceases.
For the faithful fail from among the children of men.

All seems lost.

²Everyone lies to his neighbor.
They speak with flattering lips.
They speak with a double heart.

³May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips.
May he cut off the tongue that boasts.

Recall John 8:44 as Jesus confronts doubleminded hypocrites who seek only for themselves:

You are of your father, the devil. You want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.

⁴They say: “With our tongue we will prevail.
Our lips are our own.
Who is lord over us?”

Paul writes in Romans 3:

¹³Their throat is an open tomb.
With their tongues they have used deceit.
The poison of vipers is under their lips

¹⁴Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Recall James 3:8–10:
Nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God. Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

⁵Yahweh says:
“Because of the oppression of the weak,
Because of the groaning of the needy,
I will now arise.”
I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”

This is the first psalm where Yahweh directly speaks. For times in the previous psalms David cries out:

“Arise, Yahweh! Save me, my God! (3:7), ” “Arise, Yahweh, in your anger (7:6),” “Arise, Yahweh! Don’t let man prevail (9:19),” and “Arise, Yahweh! God, lift up your hand! Don’t forget the helpless (10:12).”

In each case, David trusted in God’s faithfulness. Now, finally God answers using the same words: “I will now arise.”

⁶Yahweh’s words are flawless words.
They are as silver refined in a clay furnace.
As purified seven times.

The seven times metaphor in the Bible relates to complete testing, fullness of time, and the promise of restoration. The phrase “purified in a furnace” relates to Israel’s refinement in Isa 48:10:

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.

And also to Jesus in Rev 1:15:
His feet were like burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace.

⁷You will keep them, Yahweh.
You will preserve them from this generation forever.

Future hope and guarantee.

⁸The wicked walk on every side.
What is vile is exalted among the sons of men.

God promises. But, still we wait. The question: “How long?” still applies.

Psalm 13
For the Chief Musician.
A Psalm by David.

¹How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

²How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart every day?
How long shall my enemy triumph over me?

David cries out. So do we. And Jesus too. Recall Jesus’s cry in Matt 17:17:

Faithless and perverse generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you?

The question to God, “How Long?” appeared first in Psalm 6:3. Here we are seven psalms later and the phrase appears four times. It’s an indication of extreme desperation and emotion.

³Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God.
Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death.

⁴Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him.
Lest my adversaries rejoice when I fall.

The psalmist contemplates death, the ultimate enemy. Yet, despite everything, the mood is about to change again.

⁵But I trust in your loving kindness.
My heart rejoices in your salvation.

⁶I will sing to Yahweh.
He has been good to me.

Psalm 14

Psalm 14 and 53 are near identical. I’ve changed to a larger font to highlight the parts of Psalm 53 that are missing from Psalm 14. The sentence in square brackets [] is missing in Psalm 53.

For the Chief Musician.
To the tune of “Mahalath.”
A Psalm of David.

¹The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”

Interesting! The Hebrew word used for fool is ‘Nabal.’ This calls to remembrance 1 Sam 25:25 when the rich man Nabal refused hospitality to David and his troops. Fool does not mean stupid. Rather, it points to one being morally bankrupt or vile. Paul writes in Rom 1:22: “Claiming to be wise, they become fools.”

They are corrupt.
They have done abominable deeds.
There is no one who does good.

Paul alludes to this psalm in Romans 3.

¹⁰There is no one righteous; no, not one.

¹¹There is no one who understands.
There is no one who seeks after God.

¹²They have all turned away.
They have together become unprofitable.
There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.

²Yahweh looked down from heaven on the children of men.
He sees if there were any who understood, who sought after God.

Paul continues in Romans 4:13:

There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

³They have all gone aside.
They have together become corrupt.
There is no one who does good, no, not one.

⁴Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?
They eat up my people as they eat bread.
They don’t call on Yahweh.

Paul Continues in Romans 3:

¹⁵Their feet are swift to shed blood.
16Destruction and misery are in their ways.
¹⁷The way of peace, they haven’t known.
¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes

Athanasius (328–373) warns:
Should you hear others blaspheme the providence of God, do not join with them in their profanity but intercede with God, using the 13th psalm (14th in modern Bibles).

⁵There they were in great fear where there was no fear.
For God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you.
You have put them to shame.
Because God has rejected them
[But God is in the generation of the righteous].

⁶You frustrate the plan of the poor. But Yahweh is his refuge.

⁷Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!

Ancient Jews waited for the messiah’s first coming. We wait for his return.

When Yahweh turns back the captivity of his people.
Then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

Psalm 53 is wrapped between Psalms 52 and 54. This gives us a clue to the historical context. The superscript of Psalm 52 refers to Doeg revealing David’s location to Saul (1 Sam 22:9). Psalm 54’s superscript focuses when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, “Isn’t David hiding himself among us (1 Sam 26:1)?” This suggests the historical setting was sometime during David’s flight from Saul.

Conclusion

There is a pattern that repeatedly appears in Scripture. David was anointed by Samuel when he was a child. But then, everything seemed to be going wrong. Saul had thousands David had a few hundred. All seemed lost. But then, suddenly, after unrelenting trials and a long difficult wait, at the point of defeat, victory comes.

Israel was promised to be a light to the nations. The Son of David was to set up an eternal kingdom. Instead, Israel was scattered in the diaspora. Centuries passed. Then, suddenly, after four hundred years of apparent silence, the messiah appeared.

Jesus performed miracles. He announced the coming kingdom. He was rejected and experienced death. All seemed lost. But then, suddenly, at the point of defeat he rose from the dead and took his position at the right hand of God (Dan 7:13).

New Testament believers have the promise of eternal life. Recall 1 Cor 15: 22–26:

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming. Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

We wait. Sometimes Jesus’s return seems like an empty promise. But is it? According to the pattern, no!

Thanks for listening,

Modern Musical Renditions for Psalm 12

The Words of the Lord are Pure by Celtic Folk Music
My Trust Is in the Lord by Nathan Clark George and Crew

Modern Musical Renditions for Psalm 13

How Long Oh Lord, How Long by Sovereign Grace Music
How Long, Oh Yahweh by Praise Elohim

Modern Musical Renditions for Psalm 14

Out of Zion – Highway to Zion by Warriors of God
Oh Savior Come by My Soul Among Lions

For Further Meditation

Agpeya: Prayer Book of the Hours, (Coptic Orthodox Church of Saint Mark, 2017).
Christopher Ash, The Psalms: A Christ Centered Commentary: Psalms 1–50, Vol. 2, (Crossway, 2024).
Athanasius, “letter to Marcellinus: On the Interpretation of the Psalms.”
Augustine, “Exposition on the Psalms.”
Basil, The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation, Vol. 46.
Basil, On Prayer.
Bonhoeffer Dietrich, Psalms: The Prayer Book.
C. Hassell Bullock, Encountering the Book of Psalms, (Baker 2001).
Hilary of Poitiers, “Homilies on the Psalms.”
Joseph Galineau, The Psalms: A New Translation Singing version, (Paulist Press, 1991).
Jerome, The Fathers of the Church: The Homilies of Jerome 1–59, Vol 1.
Dereck Kidner, Kidner Classic Commentaries: Psalms 1–72, (IVP Academic, 1973).
C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms, (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1958).
Temper Longman III and David E. Garland, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Psalms, Vol. 5, (Zondervan, 2008).
Origen of Alexandria, Fathers of the Church: Homilies on the Psalms Codex Monacensis Graecus 314, (Catholic University of America Press, 2020).
Origen, Commentary on Psalms.
Pettingill, Christ in the Psalms, (Van Kampen Press, 1937.
Rashi, “On Psalms.”

Dan Harvey, author of Wrestling with Faith and Experiencing the Apocalypse

Psalm 12-14: Yahweh Speaks

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