Man’s Treachery and God’s Constancy

¹Help, Lord , for the godly man ceases![#(Is. 57:1); Mic. 7:2]

For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

²They speak idly everyone with his neighbor;[#Ps. 10:7; 41:6]

With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

³May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,

And the tongue that speaks proud things,

⁴Who 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.”

⁶The words of the Lord are pure words,[#2 Sam. 22:31; Ps. 18:30; 119:140; Prov. 30:5]

Like silver tried in a furnace of earth,

Purified seven times.

⁷You shall keep them, O Lord ,

You shall preserve them from this generation forever.

⁸The wicked prowl on every side,

When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.