Psalms 12

Psalms 12:1

Augustine of Hippo: “Save me, O Lord, for the holy has failed;” that is, is not found: as we speak when we say, Corn fails, or, Money fails. “For the truths have been minished from among the sons of men” [Psalms 12:1]. The truth is one, whereby holy souls are enlightened: but forasmuch as there are many souls, there may be said in them to be many truths: as in mirrors there are seen many reflections from one face. — Exposition on Psalms 12

Cassiodorus: Since he was observing that this world burdens souls, he asks the Lord to be saved. He knew that genuine medicine can only be found with God. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 12:2

Eusebius of Caesarea: There is no righteous one left anywhere, he said, who can become the author of my deliverance. Truly I lack a Savior, and since there is none, you yourself, Lord, be my Savior. — COMMENTARY ON Psalms 12:2-3

Psalms 12:2

Augustine of Hippo: “He has talked vanity each man to his neighbour” [Psalms 12:2]. By neighbour we must understand every man: for that there is no one with whom we should work evil; “and the love of our neighbour works no evil.” [Romans 13:10] “Deceitful lips, with a heart and a heart they have spoken evil things.” The repetition, “with a heart and a heart,” signifies a double heart. — Exposition on Psalms 12

Augustine of Hippo: There is a double heart there, not a simple one; it is not what it has within itself that it utters outwardly. The double heart, once upon a time, received this damning judgment: “Deceitful lips in heart and heart have spoken evil.” It should have been enough to say, “In the heart they have spoken evil.” How are lips deceitful? What is deceit? When one thing is done openly, another covered up. Deceitful lips mean a not simple heart; and because it is not a simple heart, that is why “in heart and heart”; that is why “in heart” twice over; because it is a double heart. — SERMON 133:4

Evagrius Ponticus: First the righteous fail, then the truth is diminished. Not only is there no truth among the righteous, there is no holiness among honest people. Now, since the righteous have failed, truth is diminished. Perhaps the poverty of righteous people is the reason why so many heresies have shot up. — NOTES ON THE Psalms 11[12].2

Theodoret of Cyrus: Regard for truth is in danger of being snuffed out, with everyone, you might say, suffering from distrust in one another.… They pretend friendship and perform the actions of enemies.… Some use their lips to direct falsehood into their neighbor’s heart; others return the compliment. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 12:2

Valerian of Cimiez: We shall take care to have nothing base spring from our hearts, nothing blasphemous fly from our lips, nothing harmful harbored in our thought. The prophet condemns not only what offends the ears but also the attitude that some people cherish in their minds. “With deceitful lips and with a double heart they have spoken evil things.” Deliberations, too, then should be listed among the faults of an insolent tongue. Whatever you speak in your heart you are confessing to the Lord, because God is the Searcher of hearts. Since you cannot hide even your thought from him, can that which you shout aloud remain hidden from him or excused? Reflect on this. — HOMILY 5:7

Psalms 12:3

Augustine of Hippo: “May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips” [Psalms 12:3]. He says “all,” that no one may suppose himself excepted: as the Apostle says, “Upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and of the Greek.” [Romans 2:9] “The tongue speaking great things:” the proud tongue. — Exposition on Psalms 12

Cassiodorus: Consider the piety of the speaker, for he does not direct his prayer against people, since many of them needed to be converted, but against the vices themselves. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 12:4

Clement of Rome: Let us cleave, therefore, to those who cultivate peace with godliness, and not to those who hypocritically profess to desire it. For [the Scripture] says in a certain place, “This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” [Isaiah 29:13] And again: “They bless with their mouth, but curse with their heart.” [Psalms 62:4] And again it says, “They loved Him with their mouth, and lied to Him with their tongue; but their heart was not right with Him, neither were they faithful in His covenant.” [Psalms 78:36-37] Let the deceitful lips become silent, [and “let the Lord destroy all the lying lips, ] and the boastful tongue of those who have said, Let us magnify our tongue: our lips are our own; who is lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, and for the sighing of the needy, will I now arise, says the Lord: I will place him in safety; I will deal confidently with him.” [Psalms 12:3-5] — Clement’s First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 15

John Chrysostom: Do you see the solicitude of the inspired author, how he prays for them? The remark is not against them, no, but on their behalf. He did not ask for them to be destroyed, note, but for the evil to be done away with. He did not say “the Lord will destroy them,” note, but the “deceitful lips.” Again, he asks for the destruction not of their being but of their tongue, their folly, their deceit, and for an end to be put to their arrogance. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 12:1-2

Origen of Alexandria: When the Lord wipes out those things that are base, he will destroy those very things, so that when those things that have come on a person unexpectedly have been destroyed, the foremost creation of God whom the baser things had overtaken may take up the higher things. — SELECTIONS FROM THE Psalms 12:4

Valerian of Cimiez: We find many who occasionally mix poison with sweet words in one and the same conversation and enter into conflicts by feigned persuasions to peace. What can be more unfortunate or dangerous than the case of those people who with all the ardor of their deceitful tongues plot against someone’s life? Why do they fail to consider the prophet’s psalm, which states, “May the Lord destroy sinful lips.” Do you perceive under what a curse one lives who is contriving one plan in his heart and placing another on his tongue — HOMILIES 5:5

Psalms 12:4

Augustine of Hippo: “Who have said, We will magnify our tongue, our lips are our own, who is Lord over us?” [Psalms 12:4]. Proud hypocrites are meant, putting confidence in their speech to deceive men, and not submitting themselves to God. — Exposition on Psalms 12

John Chrysostom: “Our lips are our own; who is our master?” These are words of insane and deranged people. For this very reason Paul says the opposite to them in the words, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price,” and bids them not to live for themselves. Your lips are not yours, he is saying, but the Lord’s. He it was, in fact, who made them, who fitted you together, who breathed life into you. But you—what do you have? Not all that we have, by contrast, is ours; for even the possessions we have others have entrusted to us, and the land we lease others have given to us. Exactly so has God let these things out on lease to you, not for you to bear thorns but to convert the seed into something useful; not for you to make folly flourish by them, not for deceit but for humility, benediction and love. He gave you eyes, not to indulge in unrestrained gazing but to embellish them with temperance; and hands, not for striking but for giving alms. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 12:2

Theodoret of Cyrus: With mouths agape they heedlessly utter whatever occurs to them, scornful of divine long-suffering and giving no thought to their falling under the lordship of God. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 12:3

Psalms 12:5

Augustine of Hippo: “Because of the wretchedness of the needy and the sighing of the poor, now I will arise, says the Lord” [Psalms 12:5]. For so the Lord Himself in the Gospel pitied His people, because they had no ruler, when they could well obey. Whence too it is said in the Gospel, “The harvest is plenteous, but the labourers are few.” [Matthew 9:37] But this must be taken as spoken in the person of God the Father, who, because of the needy and the poor, that is, who in need and poverty were lacking spiritual good things, vouchsafed to send His own Son. From thence begins His sermon on the mount to Matthew, where He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” [Matthew 5:3] “I will place in salvation.” He does not say what He would place: but, “in salvation,” must be understood as, in Christ; according to that, “For my eyes have seen Your salvation.” [Luke 2:30] And hence He is understood to have placed in Him what appertains to the taking away the wretchedness of the needy, and the comforting the sighing of the poor. “I will deal confidently in Him:” according to that in the Gospel, “For He taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” [Matthew 7:29] — Exposition on Psalms 12

Cassiodorus: “I will arise” is a metaphor to indicate that the one who is not familiar with the human need to lie down out of weakness does in fact rise up. But he says I will arise, I will appear and be manifest in the Son. For the strength and majesty of the Father and of the Son are one and undivided. For the Father appears and is manifest in the Son, as Christ himself says in the Gospel: “He who sees me sees the Father also.” — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 12:6

Psalms 12:6

Athanasius of Alexandria: When Israel had left Egypt, God forbade the people to even touch the mountain where he was giving the Law, because they were far from being “on fire” for the Lord. He did, however, call the blessed Moses to that mountain. Moses was totally committed to him and clung to his grace, so God said, “Let Moses alone draw near.” So Moses climbed up the mountain into the cloud, and although that mountain smoked with the heat and presence of the Lord, Moses was unharmed. Rather, through “the words of the Lord, which are pure silver refined in a furnace,” he came down more pure than when he went up. — FESTAL LETTERS 3:4

Diodorus of Tarsus: Since he said that the Lord’s sayings are pure and unmixed with falsehood, he goes on to say that as silver brought into contact with fire is found to be purified of every defilement, so also such commands of God emerge sincere and unaffected by falsehood. The phrase “seven times” means repeatedly, his meaning being that it is exceedingly pure and untainted with falsehood. — COMMENTARY ON Psalms 12

Eusebius of Caesarea: In the same manner silver is purified by fire after it is drawn through the flame two or three times, nor is that enough, but again and again being purged thoroughly by the furnace, never will it have any false or foreign material, so also the words of the Lord genuinely spoken are full of truth, as pure and undefiled, including no falsehood. — COMMENTARY ON Psalms 12:7

Origen of Alexandria: Although they may be beautiful, the words of those who stand apart from Christ are not pure but interspersed with innumerable lies; the words of the Lord alone are pure, in which there is no lie mixed, and they are true as silver purged and proven in the furnace. When anything is declared with them, it is never to be rejected in doubt. — SELECTIONS FROM THE Psalms 12:7

Psalms 12:7

Augustine of Hippo: “You, O Lord, shall preserve us, and keep us from this generation to eternity” [Psalms 12:7]: here as needy and poor, there as wealthy and rich. — Exposition on Psalms 12

Cassiodorus: Here he consoles us in tribulations while [in heaven] he establishes us in the security of eternity. Here he helps us, but there he glorifies and crowns us. In this way, a most devoted Creator preserves us here in order that we may not perish and that he may bless us there so that we can no longer be miserable in any way. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 12:8

Diodorus of Tarsus: Even if the godless and demons and agitators surround us, even if they besiege us and cut us off, you will render us superior with your help. — COMMENTARY ON Psalms 12

Theodoret of Cyrus: Guarded by your grace we shall not only escape the wiles of the present generation but shall also be provided with everlasting salvation. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 12:4

Psalms 12:8

Augustine of Hippo: “The ungodly walk in a circle round about” [Psalms 12:8]: that is, in the desire of things temporal, which revolves as a wheel in a repeated circle of seven days; and therefore they do not arrive at the eighth, that is, at eternity, for which this Psalm is entitled. So too it is said by Solomon, “For the wise king is the winnower of the ungodly, and he brings on them the wheel of the wicked.— After Your height You have multiplied the sons of men.” For there is in temporal things too a multiplication, which turns away from the unity of God. Hence “the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthy tabernacle presses down the mind that muses upon many things.” [Wisdom 9:15] But the righteous are multiplied “after the height of God,” when “they shall go from strength to strength.” — Exposition on Psalms 12

Cassiodorus: “The wicked walk in a circle” so that they are never able to arrive at the right path, since crooked paths are always associated with bad character.… For this reason, they are not able to attain the rest of the eighth day, for they are always turning backward like wheels. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 12:9

Diodorus of Tarsus: When you care for us, even if we are abandoned among those guilty of hostility and scheming, we emerge superior on account of the care of the Most High. — COMMENTARY ON Psalms 12