Years ago as a young Christian, I found something in my daily study of God’s word......
Psalms 12:6,7
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.
This discovery wonderfully blesses my heart, and continues to every time come across it, in my regular study of God’s Word.
Then many years later, I was reading something somewhere, and read how another Christian had made the same discovery, and I knew how he felt.
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Then years later, I found out that there is a controversy over my interpretation of this passage;
So I had a decision to make.
(Was I going to believe what people say about this passage, or was I going to believe the author of the Bible?)
I have the Holy Spirit, and praise the LORD, the Holy Spirit testifies to my heart, that this passage is talking about God’s promise to preserve His Word.
So how can I be wrong?
1 John 2:27
“But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”
How can you be wrong, because you took the passage out of context. You isolated vss 6 and 7 away from the context of Psalm 12. You said later that it is a comparison with the words of man and the words of God.
Here is a breakdown of the passage.
Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. (vss 1-2)
The godly and the faithful have because so scarce, that they don't seem to exist anymore. People speak vanity and with flattering lips and double heart. We will later see a contrast to this point here with the Lord's words not being false.
The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things: Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us? (vs 3)
David, still in his prayer, is asking that the Lord cut off those with the flattering lips spoken of in vss 1-2.
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.(vs 4-5)
The wrong done by the flattering words and vanity. People's words cannot be trusted. The Lord set him in safety(godly from vs 1). This here is a promise from God.
Notice, we are through the first 5 verses. The context has clearly been set, and it isn't about the Bible. It is about the godly man and those that use flattering lips. The Lord will set the godly man in safety according to verse 5. Now David will show a contrast(after a promise from God) to the false words of man to the pure words of God.
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. (vs 6)
Opposite to those in verses 1 and 2, the Lord's words are pure. What he says in verse 5 will be true because the Lord doesn't lie. He will set him in safety from the oppression.
Again, notice nothing is mentioned yet about the Bible. While the Bible does include Gods words, they are not all of them. The Bible is everything that God wanted us to have, but it didn't record every single word that God has ever said. Not all the conversations between Adam and God are recorded for instance. David is talking about the words that God says and that they are true and pure, not like the ones that speak with flattering words...
Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted. (vs7)
To say that David as change the subject just in this one verse doesn't have any contextual support. He is speaking about what he had just said in verse 5, who is speaking about the godly in verse 1. The "them" in the KJV is literally "him." Which could NOT be referring to words as we don't call words by "him." The KJV has them because it is speaking of the plural of the poor and needy which is more than one person. In English, we use the term "them" to refer to more than one person so "him" would be grammatically incorrect even though it would be a literal translation.
context doesn't support any change of the subject. Those that say it is speaking about the Bible in verse 7 need to show from the context that David changes the subject and why the term "him" is in the text and how words could be referred to as "him."
Yet put "him", "I" or "every one of them" in the text and you've now messed with the Word of God even though the original translators say that the margin notes will include words that could be equally valid in the text.
No you haven't messed at all with the Word of God. All you have done is "messed" with the translation. The "him" "I" "every one of them" is actually literally what God wrote. Technically putting in "them" is "messing," as you put it, with the Word of God. The translators are correct. The marginal note here is the literal translation of the word. It is him. Which is a person. However, we are talking about more than one person, so the plural is needed, which is "them."
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