Psalm 12
1 Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
2 They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
3 The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:
4 Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
5 For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set himin safety from him that puffeth at him.
6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
8 The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
In the past month I have had two different people try to convince me that God's promise in Ps. 12:7 is not to preserve His pure words (v.6), but to preserve the poor and needy (v.5). One of those men is the editor of the Berean Searchlight (magazine published by Berean Bible Society). He uses the King James Bible, but he does not believe that it is the inspired and perfectly preserved word of God.
He wrote the following in an email:
"I know these verses are often quoted to say that God has preserved His Word in the KJV, but I would invite you to consider that this is not what that verse is talking about. If you just read Verses 6,7, it is easy to conclude that it is speaking about preserving the words of God (although it doesn't say that the words would be preserved in the KJV). But these verses have a context, and I believe that when it comes to interpreting Scripture, context is king. Verse 5 says: "For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord: I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him." This verse says that God will keep believers safe from those who would harm them. And it is in this context that Verses 6,7 then go on to speak about God keeping "them" and "preserving them from this generation for ever." You see, it is a verse about eternal security, a verse about the preservation of believers, and not about the preservation of the Scriptures."
The following is a portion of my response to his email:
I agree that context is king in understanding any passage of scripture. The theme of Psalm 12 is words. There are 12 references to words in just 8 verses (speak, lips, tongue, etc...). It contrasts the corrupt words of men with the pure words of God. If v.7 was referring back to v.5 instead of v.6, it would say "him" as it does in v.5. Simple grammar tells us that the antecedent to v.7 is "words" in the previous verse. Why are you skipping a verse to find the antecedent? The whole psalm contrasts the words of the wicked (vs.1-4) with the words of God (vs.5-8). Their proud words will come to nought. God's pure words are preserved forever. His promise to protect people wouldn't mean anything if He can't even keep His words. By the way, in light of how many of God's people have suffered martyrdom, v.5 specifically concerns the deliverance of the godly remnant of Israel at the second coming of Christ ("I will arise"). They certainly will be poor and needy after rejecting the mark of the beast. I do believe God keeps His promises, even His promise that His words will never pass away (Matt. 24:35). The doctrine of the preservation of scripture is based on many passages. For example, the word of God "liveth and abideth forever" (1 Pet. 1:23). It liveth = inspiration; it abideth = preservation (and BOTH are true forever). If the OT was still inspired scripture in the first century (e.g. Lk. 4:21; Jn. 5:39; 2 Tim. 3:15), why can't we have inspired scripture today?
... By the way, you said that v.6 is about eternal security. Do you believe those under the law in times past and in the future tribulation have eternal security?
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