Psalms 12:3

_THE LORD SHALL CUT OFF ALL FLATTERING LIPS, AND THE TONGUE THAT SPEAKETH PROUD THINGS:_ The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips - the expression of confident faith that the Lord will hear the prayer with which the psalm begins, "Help, Lord." For in order that our prayers may be heard, we must believe that God will grant them: as the Lord saith (Mark 11:24), "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." AND THE TONGUE THAT SPEAKETH PROUD THINGS - literally, big things; i:e., the tongue that boasts of its power to deceive, as in Isaiah 28:15....

To his complaint in the preceding verse he now subjoins an imprecation, that God would cut off deceitful tongues. It is uncertain whether he wishes that deceitful men may be utterly destroyed, or only that the means of doing mischief may be taken from them; but the scope of the passage leads us rather to adopt the first sense, and to view David as desiring that God, by some means or other, would remove that plague out of the way. As he makes no mention of malice, while he inveighs so vehemently against their envenomed tongues, we hence conclude, that he had suffered much more injury from the latter than from the former; and certainly falsehood and calumnies are more deadly than swords and all other kind of weapons. From the second clause of the third verse it appears more clearly what kind of flatterers they were of whom mention was made in the preceding verse: _The tongue that speaketh...

Verse Psalms 12:3. _PROUD THINGS_] גדלות _gedoloth, great things_; great swelling words, both in their _promises_ and in their _commendations_....

THE LORD SHALL CUT OFF - This might be rendered, “May the Lord cut off,” implying a wish on the part of the psalmist that it might occur. But probably the common rendering is the correct one. It is the statement of a solemn truth, designed for warning, that all such persons would be punished. ALL FLATTERING LIPS - The meaning is, that he will cut off all “persons” who use flattery; that is, he will cut them off from the favors which he will show to his own people, or will punish them. The word used here is the common one to denote disowning or excommunicating, and derives its meaning from the act of separating offenders from a community. See Genesis 17:14; Leviticus 17:10;...

EXPOSITION ANOTHER Davidical psalm, both according to the title and to the general opinion of critics; said (like Psalms 6:1.) to be "upon Sheminith"—an expression of uncertain meaning. It consists of a complaint (Psalms 12:1, Psalms 12:2), a menace (Psalms 12:3, Psalms 12:4), and a promise (Psalms 12:5). Metrically, it seems to divide itself into four stanzas—the first, second, and fourth, of four lines each; the third, of six lines. There is nothing

THE LORD SHALL CUT OFF ALL FLATTERING LIPS,.... This is either a prophecy or a prayer, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi observe; that God either would or should cut off such who used flattery with their lips, by inflicting some judgment in this life, or everlasting punishment hereafter; by taking them away by death "out of the world", as the Targum paraphrases it; or by casting them into hell, where all liars and deceitful persons will have their portion; see Job 32:21; [AND] THE TONGUE THAT SPEAKETH PROUD THINGS, or "great things" f, as the little horn, Daniel 7:20; and the beast, or Romish antichrist, who is designed by both, Revelation 13:5; and which will be accomplished when Christ shall destroy him with the br

Psalms 12:1. _Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men._ One might have thought that David still lived among us, his cry is so timely, so exactly true to the position of affairs today. What a prayer he offers! Driven away from confidence in men, he cries, «Help, Lord! Thou mighty One, put forth thy power! Thou faithful One, display thy truth! ‘Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.'» Psalms 12:2. _They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak._ They speak vanity; there is nothing in it. It is all froth, no reality; vain speech about vain subjects, having no real spiritual power to help the man that heareth: «

Psalms 12 _ 1. The arrogance of the wicked in the last days (Psalms 12:1)_ 2. Then Jehovah will act and deliver His people (Psalms 12:5) Psalms 12:1. It is the time of departure from the Lord; the godly and faithful have ceased. It is a mass of corruption, lying lips, flattering lips, proud lips. They reject the Lord. “Who is lord over us?” Psalms 12:5. Then faith sees the coming intervention. The Lord will speak. “Now will I arise, saith Jehovah, I will set him in safety whom they would puff.” Jehovah will keep His people in these coming dark

XII. A PRAYER OF FAITHFUL JEWS AGAINST THE ARROGANT TONGUE OF THE UNGODLY. Psalms 12:1_._ The godly man ceaseth (see Psalms 4:1). The wicked acknowledge no responsibility for their words: they say, To our tongues we give might, _i.e._ free rein. Psalms 12:5. Yahweh declares His intention of rising in defence of the poor and needy. Here the author quotes (unless the identity of the words be mere coincidence) Isaiah 33:10. He relies on a Divine promise there given, to which he now (Psalms 12:5_ b_) appeals. Well may he rely on the

THE TONGUE, &C. Quoted in James 3:5....