Psalm 12

A Davidic Psalm 

1 Do save, O Yahweh, for the benign one has reached an end, 

For the faithful ones have disappeared 

from the sons of humanity; 

2 They speak hypocrisy, each one with his associate; 

With a lip of slick words, 

with a double-minded heart they speak. 

3 May Yahweh cut off all lips of slick words, 

The tongue speaking great things: 

4 Who say, With our tongue we shall have mastery; 

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

5 Because of the devastation of the humbled, 

Because of the groaning of the needy, 

Now I shall arise, says Yahweh; 

I shall set him in safety; 

I shall shine forth for him. 

6 The words of Yahweh are clean words, 

Silver refined in a kiln, 

Fine gold cupelled seven times. 

7 You O Yahweh, You shall guard them; 

You shall preserve us from this generation for the eon. 

8 The wicked walk round about, 

As the squanderings of the sons of humanity are exalted. 

Permanent 

This psalm is beautiful if studied in its entirety. Quite common is the practice among believers to take scriptures out of its immediate or remote context, which has lamentable consequences. There are buckets full of erroneous teachings among Christians - so many that you can't be wary enough when reading or listening to sermons or talk with believers. Let us, therefore, give the structure of these few lines in order to get an idea of the scope of this psalm: 

A1 | 1. The faithful one calls for salvation (General)

B1 | 2. The unfaithful

A2 | 3. The faithful one calls for salvation (Specific) 

B2 | 4. The unfaithful 

A3 | 5-7. Yahweh (answer) and the faithful one (reaction)

B3 | 8. The unfaithful 

From this we can see that the psalm follows an extended alternation. There are only two topics in this psalm, faithfulness and unfaithfulness. These are treated in an alternating manner; in the diagram indicated by the indented B and the letter A, which respectively correspond with each other in topic. 

Let us note the unfaithful one's traits: hypocrisy, double-mindedness, denial of God's lordship. These are common traits of those who are unfamiliar with God, who have no faith, and live in the world. The Psalm juxtaposes the wicked and the faithfulness of Yahweh in such a way that especially the words in v. 6 shine out. The words of Yahweh - clean, refined, and cupelled seven times - are the exact opposite of the impure, hypocritical, and boastful words of those who don't know God. God holds on to what He says, there is no lie or impurity in a single one of His utterances, He doesn't say the one thing in one instance and the other or complete opposite in another. 

All this wouldn't be too bad, as long as we are only speaking of unbelievers in verses 2, 4, and 8, and not about believers, or the righteous or faithful one's. But scripture also declares, with a special view to us, the body of Christ, that even among believers such practices would be common: 

Now the spirit is saying explicitly, that in subsequent eras some will be withdrawing from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and the teachings of demons, in the hypocrisy of false expressions, their own conscience having been cauterized (1Tim 4:1,2) 

Certainly, the unbelievers described in Psalm 12 have a cauterized conscience; else, how could they speak hypocritical? Just as they, so the believers. As I have already mentioned, a lot of erroneous teaching among Christians has arisen because of taking scripture out of context. But that is not the only means by which false teachings are introduced into the body of Christ. 

If we consult christian commentaries, many expressions are used that are unscriptural, expressions that are not found in the scriptures anywhere. This isn't surprising because God Himself predicted such confusion and heeding of demonic teachings. One source of wrong doctrinal teaching is mistranslation. Many translations are either inconsistent or simply incorrectly translated. These false expressions, which are put upon the original (Hebrew or Greek) text, lead to many teachings that are contrary to God's revelation. The idea about humanity having a free will is a good example for that. 

In the light of the original texts, we must say that teachings of demons have found entrance into many commonly used translations. This is a fact verifiable by studying the scriptures faithfully, preferably with an accurate translation (e.g. the Concordant Version).