Psalm 12: The Power of our Words

By: Edward Cortez

 

It’s been reported that on average there are 55,000 Facebook posts every second. That’s 3,300,000 every minute! Another social media giant, Twitter, reports that on average there are 6,000 tweets tweeted on Twitter every second, which corresponds to over 350,000 sent per minute, 500 million tweets per day and around 200 billion tweets per year! If we are not careful our choices of words shared on social media can hurt people. And often careless and off-the-cuff remarks have unexpected consequences.

In Psalm 12, David notices the vanishing breed of godly and faithful men in his generation. In their place are people unabashedly uttering destructive words to others. David observes in verse 1, “Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; with fl attering lips and a double heart they speak.”

If we are not careful with our words, we can easily bring harm and destruction to others even to those who are close to us life family and friends. Let us use our words to build up instead of to tear down, to encourage instead of to put down, to strengthen instead of to weaken. Words have power and through them we can impact the lives of others daily around us – potentially for life either positively or negatively. Let us leverage that power to its greatest use.

The book of Proverbs tells us, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” James bluntly said, “…the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fi re by a small spark. The tongue also is a fi re, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fi re, and is itself set on fi re by hell” (James 3:5-6).

In Psalm 12 David provides a stark contrast between the inconsistency of man’s words and the integrity of God’s words. After describing the words of the disobedient and oppressors of the poor, David has this to say about God’s words, “The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purifi ed seven times” (verse 6).

The number seven symbolizes perfection. God’s words are perfect and above reproach. We can depend on them and be our source of strength and courage in times of great need. His words are tried and true and when all else has failed His words will always be there for the humble and needy. The person who seeks to be guided by God’s words are safe and secure in God, “You shall keep them, O Lord, you shall preserve them from this generation forever” (verse 7).

The next time we post something on social media, let’s have the same attitude as David, “May these words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).