The Climb (A Journey Through Psalms for Men)

Psalm 12

For the director of music. According to sheminith. A psalm of David.

Help, Lord, for no one is faithful anymore;those who are loyal have vanished from the human race.Everyone lies to their neighbor;they flatter with their lipsbut harbor deception in their hearts.

May the Lord silence all flattering lipsand every boastful tongue—those who say,“By our tongues we will prevail;our own lips will defend us—who is lord over us?”

“Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan,I will now arise,” says the Lord.“I will protect them from those who malign them.”And the words of the Lord are flawless,like silver purified in a crucible,like gold refined seven times.

You, Lord, will keep the needy safeand will protect us forever from the wicked,who freely strut aboutwhen what is vile is honored by the human race.

Wake up in the morning, enable cruise control.

Turn on the news, hear an opinion.

Turn on SportsCenter, pay half-attention to a commercial.

Listen to a podcast on the way to work, notice billboards along the way.

Get to work, chat with your boss, your employees and your friends.

Listen to talk radio on the way home from work.

Catch up over dinner with your wife, your kids or your roommate.

Sit in front of the TV for an hour or so.

Turn off cruise control and head to bed.

Another day gone. How many directions are you pulled in throughout a single day? How many opinions seek to influence your path? How many people are telling you what you need, what you can’t live without? How many hot takes or bits of advice are thrown your way? For most of us, our days are LOUD. They are never-ending streams of information and entertainment meant to capture our attention and focus it wherever the person who paid the most for those 30 seconds wants it. So is it really even a question why we feel “bored, vexed, frantic, embittered and sniffling,” as Tom Howard put it? How is it that we as modern men have become, “a bleak business?” Psalm 12 answers our question, and although David wrote it thousands of years ago, it provides us with timely words to express some of our frustration. “No one is faithful anymore,” “everyone lies to their neighbor.” These statements could just as easily have been written yesterday about our world. So what are we supposed to do? Do we keep searching for the next best teacher or author to align our lives with, and hope they are the ones telling the truth? No.

God has already given us a North Star in our darkness. Himself in His Word.

We are not meant to wander through life directionless and purposeless, and we don’t have to. We can focus our attention on God and His Word. His very speech is flawless and will protect us from the skewed opinions and outright lies of the world. What God says is trustworthy and worth believing. We can measure everything we listen to in life against it. We can identify the lies in our daily lives, and reject them when they fail to sync up with what God says. Hold on to His promises and trust in His guarantees. He will never lead you astray. This is how we as men will spend our lives well, wringing out every bit of life in the time God gives us as we live following His Word and way.