The Purity of Words

12:1 'Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone;
for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
2 Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue that makes great boasts,
4 those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail,
our lips are with us; who is master over us?”

5 “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,
I will now arise,” says the Lord;
“I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”
6 The words of the Lord are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.

7 You, O Lord, will keep them;
you will guard us from this generation forever.
8 On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among the children of man.'


This psalm seems to be divided into four sections; vss. 1,2; 3,4; 5,6; 7,8. As is typical with the Psalmist, he first delivers a crying petition for the salvation of YHWH (vss. 1, 2). This is then met with a prayer against those who misuse their lips (vss. 3, 4). Then YHWH responds to David's prayers, He answers it and gives the reasons for His actions (5, 6). Finally, we have what I believe is a response of faith from David to the working of the LORD.
David pleads for salvation from God. He cries out in anguish of heart at the loss of the faithful of the LORD. The people have turned aside from the LORD and followed the vanities of their own deceitful lips. It is the sin of speaking that is introduced in this Psalm, and this theme is recapitulated throughout the entire Psalm. 'With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.' David knows of the bitter gall that a flattering tongue can have. The son of Jesse knew more often the wrath of Saul, only to have Saul respond with, 'David my son,' and pretend to love him as such. Flattering lips and a lying tongue are an abomination to the LORD, and as Christ tells us, 'Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.' So too, David draws on the reality of their sin. It is not so much that their words are impure, as their hearts are stirring up all sorts of evil to flow from their mouths. Their mouths are a clear mirror into the state of their hearts, and in the Psalmists mind, they are double hearted; meaning they are hypocrites. They are of those who with their tongues, 'Bless the LORD and speak evil to their neighbor.'
David responds with a prayer of condemnation against those who thus sin. David asks the LORD to 'cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that makes great boasts.' David calls down a curse upon those who have turned aside to their own boasts and those who have put confidence in their own abilities. They are claiming to be masters of their own lips, overconfident they don't realize that their lips have mastered them. David asks the LORD to destroy those who speak lies, who boast, who have trusted in their own abilities. This mindset we too should have. If only we might be so vehement in cursing everything that keeps us from Christ and honoring His Name. David saw rightly, when a man lies, it is not the hearers he is primarily sinning against, it is the LORD. It is casting God off of the throne and setting a new standard of holy living, it is disregarding the beautiful and precious laws of YHWH given to His holy people. For this, only curses hang over the sinners head.
In this Psalm we hear the LORD responding to the prayer of David. The LORD says that He will arise. As a King suited for battle, so the LORD will rise from His throne to put down the cursed rebellion of those who lie against the LORD with their lips. He will see the oppression of the people and will not remain silent. Though His justice may tarry for awhile, we can be assured that it is coming, and when it does, not even the angels will be able to keep back His fury. But mark what David immediately says of the LORD, 'The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.' The extremity of the people's sin comes from the fact that the LORD's words are pure. The voice of the LORD is pure, it speaks truth, it is spoken in holiness and uprightness; it aims at His own glory in all things. The voice of the LORD is purified seven times; a poetic expression to describe the vast holiness of the LORD's words. For silver to be purified seven times would mean that no dross, no taint, no remnant of imperfection would exist within its bullion-- pure silver. So too, the LORD's words are pure-- no taint of imperfection, no dross, no disillusionment. Everything about the LORD's words are true, upright, and holy. This means that the LORD's words can also be trusted. They have been tried and are found true. Not only is the promise of the LORD in the preceding verse to be true, but all of the words of the LORD are true. They can be relied upon.
It is with this assurance of the steadfast faithfulness of the LORD's words, that David closes this verse with a prayer of confidence and faith in the LORD. The LORD's protection against the wicked and perverse generation is known by David and he is confident that He who promised is able to perform. David can have faith that God will do what God has promised, because the LORD's words are pure and holy.

Now the thought of the LORD's words should spur us on to have speech that is beyond reproach in all things. This Psalm, overall, teaches us that words are important. Why are they important? They are important because they, (1) Reflect our heart, but (2) and more importantly, because they reflect our trust in the reality of the LORD's words. When we sin with our lips, it is against the lips of the LORD that we sin. When we lie, slander, gossip, malign, speak perversely or abuse others with our words; it is making little of the word of the LORD. It is not holding the value of God's word to be true and it is not trusting His words with our words.
Now when we hear of the words of the LORD being refined seven times, and we are wondering what practical application this can have on our daily lives, it is important to see Christ in this passage. Not only are the words of God refined and purified, but the very words of Christ are. They are a sure and steadfast promise of salvation and reprobation, of the coming Kingdom and the destruction of the kingdom of darkness. These verses speak to the reality of Christ's words, 'On whose lips no deceit was found.' Jesus spoke the truth. He spoke words that were consistently edifying, sharpening, and refining. His words were words of assurance and promises and communicating Himself in grace to people. The joy of this passage, is that we see that God speaks. That He has words. That His words are pure and holy. The Christ, the Word, is also as such. We rejoice that where man has failed, namely in the speaking of his lips and the devotion of his heart, Christ has succeeded. That He has spoken every right word, not to man only, but to God on our behalf, that we who are unrighteous might be made the very righteousness of God in Him.
And it is because of this, that we as Christians are to have pure words. If we listen to the voice of the Psalmist, and if we are to emulate Christ, we are to have words that are 'refined seven times.' This expression is used to show, as we stated above, the absolute holiness of our words. They are to be pure, tested, and tried. They are to be refined seven times, having no hint of evil or wickedness. Refined speech that is uplifting, edifying, encouraging at all times. Our tongues, as James says, are set on fire by hell; yet this too can be redeemed if we harness our mouths, if we have self-control over what we say. We want our words to not just glorify God mostly, or sometimes; but at all times we want to magnify the LORD (Psalm 34:1, 2).