Tag Archives: tribulation

O Jehovah, keep us faithful. Amen.
Reading:

Psalm 12

I wasn’t going to do this this morning because I was going to publish “Faith That Moves God” at my CLE site and then send out my Sunday School email to my “Thoughts for the Week” subscribers. But then I read Psalm 12 and got “sidetracked” pecking out some notes…

This dire, dreary Psalm begins with David declaring that the godly were gone — the inventory of them was depleted. The faithful ones had disappeared from humanity.

  1. Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
  2. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
  3. The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:
  4. Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
  5. For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.
  6. The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
  7. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
  8. The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.

When I was growing up (especially after hitting my teens, of course), I knew was surrounded by blatant and unapologetic corruption, oppression, injustice, deception, and immorality. And with them, accompanying fears and decadence that poison and rot the soul and spirit. I found the States to be noticeably and refreshingly less so. It was amazing. Continue reading →