The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"help," Hebrew hoshi'ah (הוֹשִׁיעָה), save! deliver! David's prayer bursts out in a single urgent word: "Help, LORD." But note David's response: he does not despair, nor does he try to fix it himself; he cries, "Help, LORD." When godliness seems to be failing all around, the right response is not cynicism or self-reliance but urgent prayer to God.

"godly man," chasid (חָסִיד), the devout, covenant-faithful one. He is surrounded by a generation in which godliness seems to be dying out: "the godly man ceaseth; the faithful fail from among the children of men." And there is a hidden comfort even in the cry: the very fact that David prays "Help, LORD" shows that the godly have not entirely ceased, for here is one still calling on God. God always preserves a remnant.

"ceaseth," gamar (גָּמַר), comes to an end, is finished. It looks as though the faithful are vanishing, that truth and integrity are becoming extinct, that he is almost alone. Elijah felt it: "I, even I only, am left" (1 Kings 19:10).

"faithful," emunim (אֱמוּנִים), the faithful, trustworthy. This is the experience of the believer in times of widespread corruption, the sense of being overwhelmed by falsehood, of the faithful growing few. When it seems the faithful are vanishing and the world is drowning in lies, do not lose heart; cry with David, "Help, LORD," and trust the God who never leaves Himself without a witness.

Explanation

The word for "faithful" (emunim) is worth pausing on: it is the family of amen, the language of what is firm, reliable, trustworthy. So what David laments is not merely that good people are scarce, but that trustworthiness itself is failing, the quality that lets a society hold together and a word be believed. And that is exactly why the next verse turns to speech: "they speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart" (v2). When the faithful vanish, faithful words vanish with them; a world without reliable people is a world without reliable speech. Hold onto that thread, for it runs the length of the psalm. It opens mourning the failure of trustworthy men and words, and it will end (v6) resting on the one speech that never fails, the pure words of the LORD.

Gospel Focus

"Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth", in every dark generation God preserves His people, and the Gospel assures us that Christ is building a church that the gates of hell shall not prevail against (Matthew 16:18). When Elijah despaired that he alone was left, God answered, "I have left me seven thousand in Israel" (1 Kings 19:18); "even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace" (Romans 11:5). However few the faithful seem, God always has His remnant, kept by His grace. And the Lord Jesus is the one perfectly godly and faithful Man who never failed, "the faithful witness" (Revelation 1:5), in whom the godliness that seemed to be vanishing from the earth appeared in fullness. Through Him, and by His Spirit, God raises up and keeps a people for Himself in every age. So when you look around and feel that the faithful are few, that lies and flattery fill the world, do not despair or grow cynical; cry "Help, LORD," and trust the God who preserves His remnant, who saves His people, and who has promised that His church shall never be overcome. The godly man may seem to cease, but Christ, the faithful and true, ever lives, and He will not let His people perish from the earth.

Word Study

"oppression," Hebrew shod (שֹׁד), violence, devastation. Into the flood of human lies breaks a word from God Himself, and it is the turning point of the psalm: "For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD." The oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy move the very heart of God to action.

"sighing," enqath (אֶנְקַת), groaning. God has heard the groaning of the oppressed, and He announces His intention to act: "now will I arise." God is not indifferent to the sighing of His afflicted people; He hears every groan, and there is an appointed "now" when He will arise to deliver.

"arise," aqum (אָקוּם). The God who seemed silent while the wicked boasted, "who is lord over us?" (v4), now declares that the time has come for Him to rise up and set the needy "in safety." This is a magnificent promise.

"safety," yesha (יֵשַׁע), salvation, deliverance. The very word for "safety" here, yesha, is the root of "salvation" and of the name Jesus. When God arises, He arises to save.

"puffeth at him," yaphiach lo (יָפִיחַ לוֹ), pants after him, or sneers at him. The oppressors puff and sneer as if untouchable, but God says: I will set the oppressed in safety from the one who puffs at him. This promise steadies the afflicted heart: your groaning is not unheard; the God who reigns will arise in His time to deliver you.

Explanation

This is the only place in the whole psalm where God Himself speaks. Everything else is human voices, the flatterers with their double hearts, the boasters who say "our lips are our own: who is lord over us?" (v4), and David's own prayer. Into all that babble of unreliable speech, God utters a single sentence, "now will I arise, saith the LORD." And it is a different kind of word entirely. Men's words are many and empty, promising and flattering and lying; God's one word does something, "I will set him in safety." The oppressed had been sighing, "how long?"; God answers with "now." In a psalm drowning in talk that cannot be trusted, the one voice that can be trusted speaks only once, and that once is enough, for His word is not flattery but action.

Gospel Focus

"Now will I arise, saith the LORD... I will set him in safety", God's promise to arise for the oppressed is fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ, the salvation of God. The word yesha, "safety, salvation," is echoed in the name of Jesus, "the LORD is salvation," for "he shall save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). When the fullness of time came, God arose in His Son to deliver the oppressed and needy: Jesus announced His mission as good news "to preach deliverance to the captives... to set at liberty them that are bruised" (Luke 4:18). The God who hears the sighing of the needy came in flesh to answer it, and at the cross and empty tomb He arose to set His people in the safety of a great salvation. And He will arise again: "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven" (1 Thessalonians 4:16) to gather His people and right every wrong. The oppressors who sneer, "who is lord over us?", will find that the Lord has arisen, and "every knee should bow" to Jesus (Philippians 2:10). So the afflicted believer, weary of a world of lies and oppression, may take heart: God has already arisen in Christ to save, and He will arise again to complete the deliverance. Your sighing has reached the heart of God, and the God who arose in Jesus to set His people in safety will not fail to deliver all who cry to Him. Salvation belongeth unto the LORD, who arises to save.

Word Study

"words," Hebrew imaroth (אִמֲרוֹת), sayings, utterances. Against the vain, flattering, deceitful, double-hearted words of men (v2), David sets the great contrast: "The words of the LORD are pure words." In a world where you cannot trust what people say, where flattery and falsehood flood every conversation, here is speech you can trust entirely: the word of God.

"pure," tehoroth (טְהֹרוֹת), clean, unmixed. Human speech is mixed with falsehood, flattery, and self-interest; but God's words are utterly pure, unmixed with any lie or impurity. "Every word of God is pure" (Proverbs 30:5); "the law of the LORD is perfect" (Psalm 19:7); "thy word is true from the beginning" (Psalm 119:160).

"tried," tzaruf (צָרוּף), refined. And David reaches for a vivid image: "as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." So are the words of God: absolutely pure, wholly reliable, without any admixture of error or deceit.

"furnace of earth," ba'alil la'aretz. The furnace is the refiner's crucible, the place where the fire does its work upon the metal and nothing false survives the heat.

"purified seven times," mezuqqaq shiv'atayim (מְזֻקָּק שִׁבְעָתָיִם), refined sevenfold, that is, perfectly. Silver refined seven times, that is, completely, perfectly, has every trace of dross burned away; it is flawless. And the next verse gives the great promise: "Thou shalt keep them... thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever" (v7). God's pure words will be preserved for ever; they will not fail with the failing of the faithful, but endure when all human words have passed away. When the words of men cannot be trusted, the words of the LORD stand pure and enduring for ever.

Explanation

Notice where this verse falls: directly after God's promise, "now will I arise" (v5). That is not an accident of arrangement. Having recorded the one thing God said, the psalm at once stamps it certified pure, "the words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." The image is an assayer's: silver run through the fire until every trace of dross is gone, seven times over, which in Hebrew means perfectly and completely. And the fire is "a furnace of earth", God's words are refined not in theory but in the crucible of real history, tested by centuries of trouble and never once found to hold a lie. So the promise of verse 5 rests on the guarantee of verse 6: you may bank everything on "I will arise," because the One who spoke it speaks only refined silver, words with no dross of falsehood in them, preserved (v7) for ever.

Gospel Focus

"The words of the LORD are pure words... purified seven times", the pure and enduring word of God is fulfilled and embodied in Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God made flesh, and whose word shall never pass away. "In the beginning was the Word... and the Word was God... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:1, 14). The pure words of the LORD find their living center in Christ, who "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22), the truth incarnate. And His word endures for ever: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:35); "the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you" (1 Peter 1:25). In a world of flattery and falsehood, where you cannot trust the words of men, you can build your whole life and eternity on the pure, tested, preserved word of God, the Scriptures and the Gospel of Christ. This is why the believer treasures God's word above all: it is silver refined seven times, without any dross of error, wholly reliable, and it will stand for ever when every lie has perished. Do not put your trust in the fickle words of men; rest on the pure word of the LORD, which is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, and which will never fail you. Heaven and earth may pass away, but His word, and all who stand upon it, shall abide for ever.