Psalm 12

“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”

Do you know who said this? If you say ‘Adolf Hitler,’ I will not be surprised because this quote is commonly attributed to him. Ironically, this quote and its supposed source has been repeated so frequently that we’ve accepted it as true, though it technically isn’t. Instead, this statement rather summarizes a concept called “the big lie.”

In his book, Mein Kampf, Hitler accused the Viennese Jews of using this tactic to discredit the German’s activities in WWI. He said, “From time immemorial, however, the Jews have known better than any others how falsehood and calumny can be exploited.”

In a 1941 article entitled “Churchill’s Lie Factory,” Hitler’s Nazi propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, said, “The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.”

Later, in 1943, Walter Langer of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, a US intelligence agency) wrote a report entitled “A Psychological Analysis of Hitler,” in which he stated that one of Hitler’s primary “rules” was that “people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”

Though Hitler and his propaganda team didn’t produce our original quote, as commonly assumed, the idea remains true that he operated by this principle while also accusing other nations of doing the same – English, Jewish, or otherwise. This problem resembles the problem that was responding to in Psalm 12.

David was responding to the frustrating problem of the prevailing lies that people tell which seem so powerful and which cause great pain and suffering among God’s people.

We can trust God’s Word when everyone else speaks nonsense.

For the lead musician, on the eighth, a psalm of David.

With this poetic expression, David – who either would be or already was – the king over God’s chosen people, provided yet another song for the nation of Israel to sing together when they gathered for worship.As we examine this psalm, we can summarize what it says with this way: no matter what everyone else is saying and how badly their words may hurt us, we can trust in what God has said.His words are reliable and powerful and theirs is not.

This psalm follows a simple 3-1-1-3 pattern. In the first three verses, David explains a problem in the form of a prayer to God. Then he tells us what people say in v. 4 (which is the problem) and what God says in v.5 (which is the solution). In the final three verses, he provides a truth-based response to the problem with God in mind.

It’s hard to find reliable, godly people. (vv. 1-3)

Help, Yahweh, for the godly have ceased to exist –for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man!

They speak nonsense, each man to his neighbor,

with smooth lips and a double heart, they speak.

May Yahweh cut off all smooth lips,

the tongue that speaks big words.

David opens this psalm with a call to Yahweh for help.

The reason for this call for help was that “the godly have ceased to exist.” David emphasizes this problem by repeating and expanding it for dramatic effect. In David’s experience, God-fearing, reliable people had become hard to find. Whether in his circle of government and religious advisers or in the public at large, he perceived the vast majority of people around him to be unreliable in their words and motives.“

They speak nonsense” may refer to any advice, conversation, or promise on a sliding scale ranging from wicked and immoral talk, to dishonest and false information, to empty and worthless conversation. That’s why I’ve translated this as “nonsense.”

“Smooth lips” describes saying things that slide easily from your mouth into another person’s ears. This image envisions words which are easy for another person to receive because they either flatter them or tell them what they want to hear.

“With a double heart” reads literally as “with a heart and a heart,” so I’ve translated it as a “double heart.” This image envisions a person who thinks one thing but says another. The stereotypical “Minnesota Nice” approach to communication runs this risk when we smile and talk as though everything is okay when we think or feel something very different.

David wishes God would “cut off all smooth lips” and “tongues.” Although this Hebrew word – “cut off” – often refers to destruction in general, here it adds a degree of vivid expression as David envisions God performing some dramatic plastic surgery by removing the lips and tongues of all the unreliable people who were speaking useless or hurtful words. Such action would both reveal who the culprits were while also curbing their ability to keep on talking. What a wonderful world it would be if this were so!

David goes on to describe the content of what these people were saying as “big words” (or “big things”). Such a description implies that they were speaking grandiose things which sounded appealing but were rooted in pride and self-centeredness rather than the truth of God. David describes these “big words” in the following verse.

People say whatever they want to say. (v. 4)

They say, “With our tongue we will prevail,

our lips are with us

–who is our master?”

This is what people were saying. “With our tongue we will prevail” means that they believed they could determine their destiny and change their world by spreading their words and ideas. They believed that they would conquer the world by using their words as their primary weapon.

“Our lips are with us” portrays their lips as though they were soldiers who were enlisted into their army and under their command.

“Who is our master?” continues this idea, indicating that these people believed they had no obligation to follow the words of any other authority – esp. God and also his chosen king, David. They would do as they pleased, and no one could tell them otherwise or judge them for doing so.

What God says is what matters. (v. 5)

“Because of the oppression of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy,

now I will rise up,” says Yahweh,

“I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”

Here at the center of the psalm, David pivots from the words of ungodly people to the words of God. He quickly and clearly contradicts their claim that would have no one speaking over them. By placing their words in direct contrast to God’s words, shines the light of a much greater reality onto their dishonest talk and useless plans.

David envisions God himself responding to their godless claims. Their self-centered words and plans were causing other people to be “afflicted” and to become “needy.” As they served themselves, they failed to serve the best interests of other people and caused pain and heartache in other’s lives.

To this, God said he would arise. He would rise up and take action against those who damaged others by their self-centered words and plans. He would rescue those who were suffering and restore them to safety, free from the hardships and negative effects of all that godless people were saying.

It’s hard to find reliable, godly people. (vv. 6-8)

The words of Yahweh are pure words,

as silver refined in a furnace of clay, refined seven times.

You, Yahweh, will protect them;

you will preserve them from this generation forever.

All around, the wicked are walking

as that which is worthless is exalted among the children of man.

Having contrasted the words of godless people with the words spoken by God, David reaches some final conclusions.

First, he recognizes the reliability of whatever God says. Unlike the grandiose words of ungodly people, which seem so powerful and yet are genuinely worthless and powerless in the end, the words of God are pure – very pure. Unlike the “double-hearted” words of people who say one thing but think another, God thinks and says one thing. He says what he thinks, and he thinks what he says. On this we can rely.

David describes this reliability with a metaphor of raw, precious metal – such as silver or gold – that becomes pure after a meticulous process of heating that element to increasing temperatures until all other elements and impurities rise to the top and are removed.

So, God’s word is like purified silver. It is what it is. He does not say wicked, worthless, dishonest, or deceptive things. He only speaks the truth, and what he says always happens exactly as he said it would.

That’s why David felt confident that God would preserve his people, despite all their suffering, to the end of time. That’s the second conclusion David reaches here. Why? Because that’s what God said he would do. Unlike so many people in our lives who say things which never actually come to pass, whatever God says he will do. We can trust in him because he speaks a more sure word.

All around, the wicked are walking as that which is worthless is exalted among the children of man.

Third and finally, David also reaches a further conclusion – one that more realistic than optimistic (though not necessarily pessimistic, because he knew what the positive outcome would be in the end). David acknowledges that so long as wicked and worthless ideas are expressed and promoted in the world, he would continue to be surrounded by godless nonsense.

Though he knew that God would preserve his people through such nonsense and would deliver his people in the end, he also accepted that such wickedness and nonsense would persevere for a while. And so, David focused more firmly on trusting in God to preserve him for the future rather than ruin his adversaries in the present.

Having analyzed and examined this Psalm, we can agree with David that no matter what everyone else is saying and how badly their words may hurt us, we can trust in what God has said. His words are reliable and powerful and theirs is not.

We should now turn our attention to the question, “How should this psalm shape my thinking and influence my behavior today?” Let’s consider the following ways to apply the message of this psalm to our lives.

Know God’s Word so well that you can spot a lie and dismiss it – even in your own heart.

Professional bankers know that the best way to detect and spot a counterfeit piece of money is to have a close and detailed knowledge of the real version. The same is true with the words that people tell us. The best way to detect a lie – whether intended or not – is to know God’s Word so well that you can identify the nonsense that’s all around us.

David’s advisers and counselors and the people in public all around him said all sorts of things, so how could he tell whether they were telling him the truth and giving good advice or not? By knowing what God actually said. And though David doesn’t actually quote any verses or statements of Scripture in this psalm, he shows a clear familiarity with who God is and what God does.

How well do you know God and what God’s Word says? As followers of Christ, we should be the people who are most serious about reading and studying God’s Word and who are most familiar with what his Word says.

Yet, sadly, we are often more absorbed – even entranced – by the persuasive appeal of personal entertainment, news and talk show opinions, sentiments of the general public in our local culture, so-called academic and scientific theories, supposed friends, and – perhaps more than anything else – our own selfish desires, opinions, and thoughts.

Our familiarity with and understanding of God’s Word is often no more than a casual and occasional interest, reflected by how infrequently we spend time reading or studying his Word, thinking about his Word, and applying his Word to both our frequent daily decisions and our occasional major decisions. We do what we want and what ungodly, self-centered people tell us to do rather than knowing and doing what God’s Word says.

How well do you actually know what God’s Word says and how much do you actually care? Do you ever study the Word of God seriously? Do you take seriously the opportunity to hear and study God’s Word together with our church as frequently as possible? Or do you only open the Bible to answer miscellaneous questions which scratch your curiosity or to bail you out of a problem when you’re in a pinch? (There’s a big difference between studying the Bible to win an argument, chase after silly, useless questions, and satisfy intellectual curiosity on one hand and seriously pursuing God on the other!)When you scan the past week, month, and year to see how much or little you’ve read, considered, and studied God’s Word to discover that you’ve spent little to no time doing any of these things or that you’ve seriously considered what God’s Word says about anything very little or not at all, such a discovery should greatly disturb you for it reveals that you may not be living at all, at least not in a godly, genuine sense.

Either you’re not a child of God at all, or you’re an anemic, starving, unhealthy one at best, vulnerable to all sorts of dangerous deceptions and ungodly nonsense – including the lies you tell yourself even in your own heart.

• Perhaps that’s why many people – even those who claim to follow Christ – make heartbreaking, ill-advised decisions based more upon what a self-centered, so-called friend or counselor says rather than doing what God’s Word says, instead.
• Perhaps that’s why many people – even those who claim to follow Christ – are worshiping and studying God’s Word together with their church and serving together with their church family less rather than more.
• Perhaps that’s why many people – even those who claim to follow Christ – are pursuing social connections, worldly pleasures, material comfort and prosperity, and sacrificing so little for Christ instead.
• Perhaps that’s why many people – even those who claim to follow Christ – are falling prey to irrational conspiracy theories, fake news, psychological nonsense, self-proclaimed YouTube experts, appealing radio speakers and book writers, reactionary and tangential theological conclusions, or bizarre and tangential biblical interpretations.

We fall prey to ungodly people speaking nonsense with their smooth lips and big tongues when we neglect, are ignorant of, and handle irresponsibly the Word of God. I am firmly convinced that so many difficulties and heartaches that we face as believers and as a church are both unfortunate and unnecessary because they happen due to an ignorance – whether willful or not – about what God’s Word actually says.

So then, we think things, say things, and do things without knowing what God’s Word actually says about the matter and when we do study God’s Word, we do so in a lazy, independent, irresponsible, self-centered, and egotistical/arrogant way that leads to all sorts of harmful and bizarre conclusions – no matter how well-intended we think we may be. Our ignorance of what God says prevents us from enjoying the sort of peace and confidence that David enjoyed, even when he was surrounded by godless propaganda.

• As David wrote this psalm millennia ago, he knew what God had already said centuries earlier in the book of Deuteronomy. “Man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD” (Deut 8:3).
• This truth is so central and foundational to genuine spiritual life that Christ himself quoted this verse during his great temptation by Satan in the wilderness (Matt 4:4).
• In fact, even Job – who lived centuries before Moses – said a very similar thing: “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12).
• And Peter said to those who follow Christ that we should “desire the pure milk of the Word” in the same way that babies desire to drink their mothers’ milk – as though their life depended on it (1 Pet 2:2).

Do you believe this? Do you desire God’s Word the same way? Are you persuaded that you cannot live properly without a regular diet of and a close, thorough familiarity with the words of God? I urge you to take seriously your reading and study of God’s Word.

Do this personally and regularly and do this regularly together with your church family whenever you possibly can. Move from a casual (or non-existent) to serious approach and – if necessary – rearrange your habits and schedule to ensure this happens – both in private and together with the people of your church.

You can say that you believe God’s Word is true, but whether you do what he says to do and live as he says to live reveals whether you actually believe in him or not. If your life does not reflect a close and growing resemblance to Christ and your behavior, choices, habits, and priorities do not reflect a clear and increasing obedience to the commands of Christ, then you may not only be following the useless and godless words of dishonest, uniformed people, but you may have a double heart yourself – saying you believe in Christ when you believe no such thing.

As David observed, we can’t remove ourselves from the world. So long as we’re here, people will be walking all around us saying things which are contrary to what God says. Though what they say may seem appealing, persuasive, or powerful, we may safely set whatever they are saying aside – IF we know what God’s Word says instead and are believing and following HIS words instead.

So, is what Adolf Hitler (or Joseph Goebbels, or Walter Langer, or whoever else) said actually true? “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” I suppose so – history seems to prove this to be true, yet with one major exception to the rule. Allow me to restate this maxim just a little bit differently. “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed – except by those people who know God’s Word so well that they can spot that lie and dismiss it, even in their own heart.”

Are you believing and following any lies today? If you’re not a serious and devoted student of God’s Word – not just in sentiment but in reality – then you probably are believing a lie and maybe more than one, perhaps some very big ones. And perhaps that’s why you have no peace in your heart and confidence in God as you make your way through this godless world surrounded by ungodly people speaking nonsense, nonsense to which you are a victim yourself.

• Perhaps you have only claimed to believe on Christ or are simply pretending to do so.
• Perhaps that’s why you do not desire to know, to study, and to live according to the Bible.
• Perhaps that’s why you have such a casual and careless relationship with God’s Word?
• Perhaps that’s why your live follows far more selfish desires and worldly wisdom than clear teachings of the Word of God?

If so, then let me encourage you with the compassion of Christ to come to him today. Confess your sinfulness and trust in him alone as your God, your King, and your Savior. He will give you a true desire for his Word and through his Word, change you to become increasingly like him.

If you have genuinely believed on Christ as God and Savior and are not pretending, but you have a casual, irresponsible, and unserious attitude and approach to the Word of God, then let me encourage you to confess this failure to Christ. Ask him today to renew within your heart a fresh and serious desire to know his Words and to do what he said to do. Spend time on a regular basis reading and reflecting on his Word in a systematic way, one section, one chapter at a time. And take more seriously the opportunities that you have to spend time together with your church family hearing from and talking about God’s Word. No matter what everyone else is saying and how badly their words may hurt us, we can trust in what God has said. His words are reliable and powerful and theirs is not. That is why we must know his Word for ourselves as though our life depended on it – because it does.