Words, Words, Words
May the LORD cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue. Psalm 12:3 · Berean Standard Bible
The psalmist prays that God will silence these manipulators—that their deceptive tongues will be cut off and stopped.
This isn't petty—it's a prayer for justice. When lies become the currency of society, everything collapses: relationships, business, trust, leadership. The psalmist is asking God to intervene by removing the weapon these people are using to harm others.
The psalmist, now moving from complaint to petition, asking God for judgment.
Throughout the psalms, you see prayers for God's judgment against those who abuse power through deception. This connects to the Old Testament's consistent message that God hates false testimony and values truth-telling as foundational to how humans should relate.
The psalmist petitions God to eliminate those who traffic in flattery and boastful arrogance, viewing their speech as deserving divine judgment.
The imprecatory request reflects ancient Near Eastern legal conventions where the judge (in this case, the divine judge) removes those whose testimony corrupts the community's truth-telling function. The construction yikhrot—'may He cut off'—employs covenantal terminology suggesting expulsion from the community and divine favor, not necessarily physical annihilation in the modern sense.
The psalmist, now speaking prophetically or liturgically, calls upon God's justice to act against those whose words have destabilized social cohesion.
This imprecatory dimension connects to the broader biblical narrative where God's justice operates through language and judgment (as in Genesis 3's curses), while also anticipating New Testament themes of Jesus's words bringing both judgment and vindication.
1Help, O LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.
2They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.
3May the LORD cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue.
4They say, “With our tongues we will prevail. We own our lips—who can be our master?”
5“For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”
Read all of Psalm 12 — Flattering lips and boastful tongues surround the faithful. But God's words are pure — silver refined seven times.
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