Psalms
Psalms 12
Commentary
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What others are saying
4 commentators · 19 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry1
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
This psalm furnishes us with good thoughts for bad times, in which, though the prudent will keep silent (Amo 5:13) because a man may then be made an offender for a word, yet we may comfort ourselves with such suitable meditations and prayers as are here got…
John Gill8
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth,.... A godly man, according to the notation of the word (z), is one that has received grace and mercy of the Lord; as pardoning mercy, justifying and adopting grace; and who has principles of grace, goodness, and…
They speak vanity everyone with his neighbour,.... That which is false and a lie, either doctrinal or practical; what was not according to the word of God, and was vain and empty, frothy, filthy, and corrupt; and which no godly and faithful man would do. And…
The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips,.... This is either a prophecy or a prayer, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi observe; that God either would or should cut off such who used flattery with their lips, by inflicting some judgment in this life, or everlasting…
Keil & Delitzsch4
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
(Heb.: 12:2-3) The sigh of supplication, הושׁיעה, has its object within itself: work deliverance, give help; and the motive is expressed by the complaint which follows. The verb גּמר to complete, means here, as in Psa 7:10, to have an end; and the ἁπ. λεγ…
(Heb.: 12:4-5) In this instance the voluntative has its own proper signification: may He root out (cf. Psa 109:15, and the oppositive Psa 11:6). Flattering lips and a vaunting tongue are one, insofar as the braggart becomes a flatterer when it serves his own…
(Heb.: 12:6-7) In Psa 12:6 the psalmist hears Jahve Himself speak; and in Psa 12:7 he adds his Amen. The two מן in Psa 12:6 denote the motive, עתּה the decisive turning-point from forebearance to the execution of judgment, and ימר the divine determination…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown6
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
The want of it is illustrated by the prevalence of deceit and instability.
Boasting (Dan 7:25) is, like flattery, a species of lying. lips, and . . . tongue--for persons.
The writer intimates his confidence by depicting God's actions (compare Psa 9:19; Psa 10:12) as coming to save the poor at whom the wicked sneer (Psa 10:5).
World English Bible — Public domain