Sound Doctrine and Psa 12

[JD731]

My tendency when Studying the scriptures is to approach it from a dispensational standpoint. It makes perfect sense when understood from a time line in which God progressively reveals his words and his ways. Sometimes it is safe to trust the most vocal and high profile teachers in the dispensational movement and those who have reputations and the highest degrees of learning when dealing with the various subjects. However, this very reliance on and confidence in these teachers becomes a weakness in the discipline and a liability and can lead the whole movement to miss important truths because of a lack of a critical approach to their reasonings. I think this happened to Psalm 12. It has become a proof text among KJV believers (of which I am one) and dispensationalists for the purity of the word of God and is usually the only reason it is brought up in our conversations. Almost all KJV believers seem to approach this Psalm as a proof text for the pure Bible and while it certainly does no harm to that doctrine, it simply is not the main emphasis of these words.

What does God want us to see in this Psalm? He wants us to see his people under intense persecution and he wants to assure them of his faithfulness in delivering them even under this seemingly invincible tyrant who is puffing at them. This psalm is one song that shares a theme that is developed in the Psalms and the recurring words ties them together. There has been a prayer from his remnant for deliverance. Their prayer seems like it is running into brass and it even seems as if God is asleep while hope is being lost.

So this Psalm assures them of deliverance. It is the only promise of deliverance among those that carry the theme. It is in V 5. Jehovah speaks in this verse. He says he will deliver his remnant. Let me quote it.

Ps 12:5 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.

This is the key to the whole Psalm. If you miss this the understanding of the Psalm will rely completely on some other reasonings and this reassurance by Jehovah that he will answer will not have the same meaning. There can be no doubt that those who are praying have a promise that gives them hope of intervention but they are concerned about his delay and how it will result in their total destruction.

All that is written before V 5 and after V5 is written by the Psalmist and are his words. But here God speaks with an answer. You have been praying for deliverance from this wicked man and now I am going to do it.

We should look first at some important numbers associated with this Psalm. I am going to begin with the #12, and the #5, and the #8. I will say only now that the number 12 is God's number for his perfect government. When Satan and his man are finally put down then the government of God will be reclaimed and all those who are his will be rescued. It is fitting this should appear in Ps 12.

Then, the number 5 is the number for God's grace. It is instructive that his assurance of salvation comes in V5. God's grace is on display.

There are 8 verses in the Psalm. This number is the number for new things. When the 7 fold fiery refinement of his people is over then they will be a born again nation, every one saved a new man.

Psalms 3:7 Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.
Psalms 7:6 Arise, O LORD, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded.
Psalms 9:19 Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight.
Psalms 10:12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.

Psalms 17:13 Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:
Psalms 44:23 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.
Psalms 44:26 Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies sake.
Psalms 74:22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.
Psalms 82:8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.
Psalms 132:8 Arise, O LORD, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength.

The answer: Okay, I will! I will do it now. So, this projects us into the future and these events await fulfillment

Psalms 12:5 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.

There could be a tendency to interpret the Lord's rising to be his resurrection from the dead when in reality it is his rising from his place of his high priestly work at the right hand of the Father on his throne. It is now time to take his Kingly role. So, by the context we can conclude that Verse #1 begins with the rapture of the church and it is in this way that the Psalm can become literal. This could not have been understood by OT saints but today Christians have the capacity to understand these words.

This is a tribulational theme through theses psalms.

Acts 2:33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
34 For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool.

 

[JD731]

Ps 12:1 Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.

This is a Psalm of David. It is a prayer to Jehovah for help. It is not a prayer for himself but for his people. His complaint is that there are no godly men and the faithful have vanished. That is what the word fail means. The faithful have vanished from among the chidren of men.

I am looking for a time when this could be literally true. Do we know of any point in time when there is not a just man on the earth? And yes, there is one time. It is the time when the Lord will appear in the clouds and resurrect his church and take it to the Father's house. This event is not plainly seen by the OT prophets of which David was one. They saw only the time line of Israel on the earth and they did not see our present age when God is preparing a bride for his son from among the gentiles while national Israel is dispersed among the nations. The type and picture is Adam and Eve when God put his son Adam to sleep while he fashioned his wife and help meet from his side. This pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of his greater son, Jesus Christ, through whom he will redeem the children of men when his bride is fully formed and presented to him as his wife. There is a marriage ceremony in the future that is presented in prophetic parabolic form during the last days of the ministry of Jesus on the earth.

Because of the picture types and the figures, one thing representing another, it is of the utmost importance that we have a unity of words. God uses certain words throughout his revelation of his person and his ways and in this particular case of redeeming Israel and finally giving her a new national birth he brings this concept of the Lord sleeping to bear upon the prophecy.

Since faith "cometh by hearing" we read in the revelation when this prophecy reaches it's climax that he sends two OT prophets, Moses and Elijah, to preach the "gospel of the kingdom" to those of Israel and later 12,000 preachers from the 12 tribes of Israel (who of course have believed the gospel of the kingdom and been saved) and will preach it to the nations. This is the gospel that was preached to Israel by Jesus Christ and his disciples while he was on the earth and which they rejected by rejecting him. The gospel of the grace of God is being preached now. We are speaking of the earthly kingdom of Jesus Christ.

This psalm 12 is in this prophetic context.

Mt 22: And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,
2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,
3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.
4 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.
5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:
6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.
7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

A transition

8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.
10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

(there is a condition and it is a wedding garment provided by the host)

It is a tremendous act of grace for God to give such a marvelous gift to those for whom it was not prepared on the lone basis that they will come to him and receive it, just believing the offer to be true and the giver to be trustworthy.

The gospel of the kingdom is once again directed towards his coveneted nation Israel after the rapture of the gentile church. Every promise given to them, jot and tittle, will be fulfilled just like the Bible says.

 

[Mike B]

My tendency when Studying the scriptures is to approach it from a dispensational standpoint.

Could you expand on how the "from a dispensational standpoint" relates to Psalm 12?

I don't believe in passing up opportunities to learn something new.

 

[JD731]

Could you expand on how the "from a dispensational standpoint" relates to Psalm 12?

I don't believe in passing up opportunities to learn something new.

Thank you for your interest, Mike. Dispensationalism requires a literal understanding of the scriptures unless the context directs otherwise. I look at the words as if one can believe what they say but I also know God takes the literal word to establish a metaphor or similitude . In Psa 12 we see that the words the LORD speaks are as pure as silver that has been refined in a furnace of the earth 7 different times. Let's hope the LORD is consistent with how he expresses these metaphors so we can understand them in other passages. The only thing we really have to wonder about is what generation he is referring to. If, for instance, he is referring to the generation (for a description of generation, see Psa 90:10) of which Daniel prophesied, there are left 7 years of the 70 of a generation which was cut short by death, but with a promise to be resurrected later to complete the 70 years during which they will be refined through 7 extreme trials under the man of sin and come forth perfect. John describes all 7 trials, one at a time, in his Revelation.

I hope this is helpful. I know that most Christians do not believe in literal truth in words since the advent of a continous line of new Bible translations, all having different words. This practice seems like it can frustrate metaphors.

 

[JD731]

In our Independent Fundamental pretibulational, premillennial Baptist church we do all our songs of praise and worship from the Baptist Hymnal. We love those old hymns. We sing about what God has done for us in redeeming us through Jesus Christ on the cross. Few of our songs predate the events preceding Jesus' earthly ministry where he accomplished redemption for Abraham's seed, Israel, and by extension for the whole world.

Israel's psalms are like that. They mostly deal with the triumphs of Jesus Christ either surrounding his first coming as a perfect man as the perfect sacrifice for sinful men or at his second coming to rule as KING of kings and as LORD of lords on the earth. These psalms are about adoration and praise and worship and when they were written they were all prophecy. The last three days as God counts days, a thousand years as a day and a day as a thousand years, are profiled in these psalms. Many of the Psalms are concerned with his delivering his people Israel from the power and dominance of Satan and his man of sin just before and at his second coming to establish his own kingdom on the earth for a thousand years.

The stage is set as early as the 2nd Psalm. It is worthy of being read now.

1Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

The kings and rulers speak from earth.

2The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD (Jehovah), and against his anointed, saying,
3Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

Adonay responds:

4He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord (Adonay, Jesus as distinguished from the Father in the OT [see Ps 110:1], he sits on the right hand of the Father) shall have them in derision.



5Then (after that) shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. (And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us [the church] from the wrath to come 1 Thess 1:10)

Then Adonay rules from Mt Zion in Jerusalem where the throne of God on the earth is established - Read Psa 115:16 now)

6Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

Adonay, the Lord testifies

7I will declare the decree: the LORD (Jehovah) hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee (This references the resurrection from the dead, Col 1:18).


8Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen (nations) for thine inheritance (the firstborn receives a double portion of the inheritance), and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

The battle of Armegeddon where and when the rebels are destroyed

9Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
10Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

Instruction for those nations that are left.

11Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Rebellion during the 1000 year reign of Christ will be met with instance judgement.

Zach 14:16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.

Psalm 2 has 12 verses, the number for the perfect government of God. Nothing is without significance in the KJV. The number 2 is the number for testimony in the word of God. There is no book like this book because there is no LORD like our LORD.