May 1: Psalm 12
God preserves the righteous in the midst of godlessness
Common meter 86.86 Morning Song, p. 30
New Britain (Amazing Grace), p. 29 Dundee (God Works in a Mysterious Way), p. 40
O Thou, Jehovah, grant us help, because the godly cease;
And from among the sons of men the faithful now decrease.
And to his neighbor every one doth utter vanity;
They with a double heart do speak and lips of flattery.
The Lord will cut off all false lips, tongues that speak proudly thus:
“We’ll with our tongue prevail; our lips are ours, who’s lord o’er us?”
“Because the poor are sorely pressed, because the needy sighs,
To give the safety they desire,” the Lord say, “I’ll arise.”
Jehovah’s words are words most pure; they are like silver tried
In earthen furnace, seven times that has been purified.
Lord, Thou shalt them preserve and keep forever from this race.
On ev’ry side the wicked walk, with vile men high in place.
At the beginning, before the Fall, humanity was possessed of an accurate perception into reality. Adam was able to name the animals because he could perceive precisely what they were. His words expressed true insight, a contemplation of real forms, so that the very structure and composition of his mind took on the seal and assumed the formal stamp of truth. Human language then was a reflection of that divine light with which heaven and earth are full, rooted in the vision of truth. The Fall, when it came, derived from that demonic disassociation of speech from truth, that we call the Lie: “You will not surely die.” The acquiescence in that first lie was humanity’s original act of metaphysical rebellion. It was human language’s first declaration of independence (as verse 4 of our psalm): “With our tongues we will prevail; Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” Just as truthful speech streams forth from vision, springing from the fount of a pure heart, so lying is conceived in the duplicitous heart before it issues from the mouth (verse 2): “They speak falsehood to one another; with flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.” In contrast to these varied, seemingly universal lies of men stands the reliable words of God: “The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, purified seven times.” In this very unveracious world we yet trust that, though heaven and earth pass away, His words will never pass away. (Reardon, p. 21-22)
“Now I will arise,” says the Lord; “I will set him in the safety for which he longs.” (vs. 5)