A Devotional Thought from Psalm 12
Psalms 12
To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David.
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.
That ain’t her lips!
Have you ever heard that said, or maybe some variation? A sentence like that is usually spoken when someone sees a celebrity that is fighting to maintain her youth. “Those ain’t her lips”, means those aren’t the ones that she was assigned at birth, something has been added or changed. There is one famous actress who sparked much debate between an important someone in my past and myself. I won’t tell you the name of the actress but I will tell you that her initials are AJ.
“That ain’t her lips!”, the lady with whom I would debate would say. I said they were her lips. I suppose that only she and her plastic surgeon know for sure.
What does AJ’s lips have to do with the Bible?
David laments the scarcity of faithful men and women in today’s Psalm.
He especially struggles with the way folks talk.
Their speech was filled full of vain things, meaningless words and flattering, insincere speech spoken in order to manipulate rather than lift up.
Can you imagine the Psalmist’s frustration with the misuse of words if he had been given access to TV and social media. Evil men and their speech have gotten worse and worse. Things have certainly not improved over time.
I have had a number of conversations recently with ladies who have expressed frustration with the lying tongues of unfaithful men. I myself am tired of the lies and misrepresentation of those whose job should be to just convey the facts. We are all tired of forked tongue politicians who make grand promises for our votes and deliver on almost none.
The Psalmist tells the thoughts of those unfaithful in verse 4
Psalm 12: 4 Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail;
our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
Did you catch it? These people think, “our lips are our own”. They believe they can say and do what they want with their lips.
Here is the problem, those ain’t their lips!
Those lips are God’s lips, created by him for good. God created us to fellowship with him. He saved us to lead others to that wonderful and fulfilling relationship that only he can offer.
David concludes the Psalm by exalting the wonderful words of God that are faithful and forever settled in Heaven. He contrasts them with the unfaithful words of the wicked. Surely we should have those words on our lips since they are dependable, life changing and eternal.
Look in your mirror today, make a duck face for a second and then say to that person you see,
“Those ain’t her lips”
or if you’re a dude say,
“Those ain’t his lips”
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