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Psalm 12 Bible study: Flawless words
Psalm 12 is words against words: empty speech, smooth lips and a double heart (in Hebrew, heart said twice), and the boast "Who is lord over us?" (12:4). Then the LORD speaks for himself, "I will now arise" (12:5), the verb the psalms cry to him with, and the psalm calls his words silver refined, "purified seven times" (12:6).
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“The LORD’s words are flawless words, as silver refined in a clay furnace, purified seven times.”
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“In Psalm 12 the LORD himself speaks, saying "I will now arise".”
Is that in Psalm 12, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
A psalm about words
The title says: "For the Chief Musician; upon an eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm of David" (12:1). Psalm 6's title has the same Hebrew word, which the WEB gives there as "the eight-stringed lyre" (Psalm 6:1). Then the psalmist cries out: "Help, LORD; for the godly man ceases. For the faithful fail from among the children of men" (12:1) (tap Help, godly, ceases, fail). What follows is almost all about speech. "Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart" (12:2) (tap lies, flattering, heart). "May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that boasts" (12:3). Then the psalm quotes them: "With our tongue we will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is lord over us?" (12:4). Lips comes in each of these three verses, and tongue in two of them. Here is what almost everyone misses: in Hebrew Everyone lies is shav yedabberu, they speak shav, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "emptiness, vanity". The charge is empty speech, from smooth lips and a double heart.
Where it leads to Jesus
Your word is truth
Psalms 12:6leads toJohn 17:17
Psalm 12 sets the LORD's words against lying lips: "Everyone lies to his neighbor" (Psalm 12:2), but "The LORD’s words are flawless words, as silver refined in a clay furnace, purified seven times" (Psalm 12:6). Praying for his disciples, Jesus said to the Father, "I have given them your word" (John 17:14), and "Your word is truth" (John 17:17). Jesus doesn't cite Psalm 12, so setting them together is a reading. It rests on a shared subject, God's word true where people's words are empty, not on a shared English word. One reading hears in Jesus's words to the Father what the psalm says of the LORD's words, set against the lying lips around it. Another reads Jesus's words in their own setting, his prayer before he went out with his disciples "over the brook Kidron" (John 18:1), without pointing to this psalm.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Psalm 12
That was a taste
The rest of Psalm 12 is waiting in Favor
- The LORD answers in his own words
- Silver, refined and purified
- Word and refining, six times
- The same words at both ends
- 6 questions as you read
- 13 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Psalm 12 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
צָרַףtsarafsay tsa-RAF
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "smelt, refine, test". Strong's: "to fuse (metal), i.e. refine". It is the metalworker's word: "as silver refined in a clay furnace" (12:6). Another psalm says it of God and his people: "You have refined us, as silver is refined" (Psalm 66:10). The Hebrew Bible sets it beside imrah, word, in six verses; one is "Every word of God is flawless" (Proverbs 30:5), where the WEB's flawless is this verb.
For your group
Psalm 12 Bible study questions
- 1"They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart" (12:2). Where is it hardest for you to say plainly what you mean?
- 2The boasters say, "Our lips are our own. Who is lord over us?" (12:4). What would change in how you speak this week if your words weren't only your own?
- 3The psalm ends with the wicked still walking on every side (12:8), yet in the middle it says, "The LORD’s words are flawless words" (12:6). When things around you haven't changed, what helps you keep trusting what God has said?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Psalm 12 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Can I read Psalm 12 straight away?
Favor takes the Bible as one story, in order, so you'll reach Psalm 12 with everything that leads up to it in view. Start from Genesis, or meet Jesus first in the Gospels. You can read the text of any chapter in Favor's Look up whenever you like.
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I've never really read the Bible. Is this for me?
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The World English Bible, a modern, readable translation in the public domain. God's name appears as "the LORD", as in most English Bibles.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home