Psalm 12

PSALM 12

God, a Helper against the Treacherous.

For the choir director; ^†upon an eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm of David.

¹Help, Lord, for ^athe godly man ceases to be,

For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

²They ^aspeak ¹falsehood to one another;

With ^bflattering ²lips and with a double heart they speak.

³May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,

The tongue that ^aspeaks great things;

⁴Who ^ahave said, “With our tongue we will prevail;

Our lips are ¹our own; who is lord over us?”

⁵“Because of the ^adevastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy,

Now ^bI will arise,” says the Lord; “I will ^cset him in the safety for which he longs.”

⁶The ^awords of the Lord are pure words;

As silver ^btried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.

⁷You, O Lord, will keep them;

You will ^apreserve him from this generation forever.

⁸The ^awicked strut about on every side

When ^1bvileness is exalted among the sons of men.