Psalm 12
Plea for Help in Evil Times
To the leader: according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
1 Help, O Lord, for there is no longer anyone who is godly;
the faithful have disappeared from humankind.
2 They utter lies to each other;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak...
5 'Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan,
I will now rise up,' says the Lord;
'I will place them in the safety for which they long.'
6 The promises of the Lord are promises that are pure,
silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.
7 You, O Lord, will protect us;
you will guard us from this generation for ever.
8 On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among humankind.
At the turn of the twentieth century, Thomas Hardy, the noted English novelist and poet, considered the bleakness of the world and sadly wrote that there was so little cause for carolings.
Throughout human history, as noted here in these verses from the Book of Psalms, there have been those periods when it seems all is darkness...there is no longer anyone who is godly; the faithful are disappeared from humankind. They utter lies to each other, with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
We certainly are living now in a time when so much seems to be going awry. As I write this, the news has been released that the Congressional Super Committee was not able to find solutions to the current economic budget calamity. Meanwhile, the headlines - local, national, global - reveal one dark happening after another.
The heart of our faith is that even in the darkest hours we find reasons to hope, especially as we enter more fully into the message of the Advent season. This is not a naïve hope, a Pollyanna hope; rather, it is hope grounded in the resounding truth that God has not abandoned His world or our lives. Verse six here says, The promises of the Lord are promises that are pure. You do believe that, don't you?
The message of a coming Messiah who would someday bring assurance that we are in God's loving arms and that He does count us, especially in our darkest moments, worthy of His attention was at the heart of Hebrew faith and hope. Advent for us Christians is the acknowledgment that this one has come and the message has indeed been proclaimed! We are not alone; God is with us; God will come to restore our hope!
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