Psalm 12 - NKJV 1 Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. 2 They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; With flattering lips and a double heart they speak. 3 May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, And the tongue that speaks proud things, 4 Who have said, “With our tongue we will 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 I will arise,” says the LORD; “I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.” 6 The words of the LORD are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times. 7 You shall keep them, O LORD, You shall preserve them from this generation forever. 8 The wicked prowl on every side, When vileness is exalted among the sons of men. To the Chief Musician. On an eight-stringed harp. A Psalm of David.

Flattering Lips Verse six says, "The words of the LORD are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times." Words mean things. They do. Words have power to help, heal, or hurt. Words are like sharp barbs. They stick. They last. You can never really take back a word you have spoken. Once it is out there it floats in time and space for eternity. Just like light that travels at 180,000 miles a second so words travel in memory and through time. They keep on echoing. David talks about flattering words. The devil is filled with flattering words. He lies. Beware of flattery. Flattery is praise with a motive, whether it is benign or blatantly grasping. "Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear." - Dinah Mulock Craik Lord Chesterfield said, "Flattery is a complaisant indulgence for people's weaknesses"? "Baloney is flattery so thick that it can not be true and blarney is flattery so thin that we like it." - Bishop Fulton J. Sheen "Flattery is like cologne -- to be smelled, but not swallowed." --Josh Billings "A man that flattereth his neighbour spreads a net for his feet."-- Proverbs 29:5 Proverbs 28:23 He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue. Proverbs 29:5 A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet. The conclusion of the matter is in WHAT THE LORD SAYS: Believe all of what the Lord says and none of what others say. "The words of the LORD are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times." New King James Bible, Bible Gateway Index Our Devotional Index