The safety that the godly man wants
[Psalms 12]
In the book "The Next Generation Leader" by Pastor Andy Stanley, 5 C's come out. The last C is the "Character". The author points out that the next generation of leaders should focus on character. Some surveys are highlighting it, and the point of those surveys is that the leaders in the company that people want to follow are honest, sincere, trustworthy, and so on. But in this era of our lives, there are countless leaders the people are following reluctantly (maybe the reason is because many people want to be a leader), and we have to think about how many leaders are around us whom we want to follow. The reason is because there may not be as many such leaders as we think.
In Psalms 12:1, the psalmist David says, “Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases to be, For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.” There was no godly or faithful man around David. Here “the godly man” refers to a person who is favored, that is, who is loved by God (Park). To be more specific, "godly" is "faithful." In other words, it refers to ‘a person who is reliable and trustworthy’ (Park). The godly person who is loved by God becomes solid, not indulged as a result of His love (Park). Then the question to ask is, 'Am I a godly man?' Indeed, I ask myself if my character is strong and reliable. However, it's a question I've rarely asked that this question can make me feel a bit puzzled. Rather than this question, a familiar question is,'Is that person trustworthy?' I've rarely asked myself the question,'Am I a trustworthy person?' because I didn’t try to be that trustworthy person from the other person’s point of view and I rather want other person to be trustworthy person to me. So, from the other side's point of view, we should ask ourselves this question often:'Am I really trustworthy?'
We live in an age when we don't trust each other. This age is a world where pastors do not trust the church members, nor do the pastors trust each other and the church members don’t trust any pastor like before. In light of what the Psalms 12, I think the cause is because the godly man is gradually ceasing (v. 1). As such, this world is hard to find godly pastors, godly saints and so on. I really want to ask myself how many pastors are around me who I want to follow from my heart. As I meditated on this, I tried to apply this to my church: (1) As a senior pastor, I am committed to becoming a reliable and trustworthy man. I am determined not to give up, but to strive to become a pastor who resembles the Lord, maturing personality. (2) I am determined to focus more on sharing God's love among my church leaders and to build strong character and trustworthy leaders. (3) I want to make every effot to build the trustworthy community in which all the church leaders and believers are trusting each other.
Then what is “the safety” of the godly man in Psalms 12:5? It is “salvation” (Park). In other words, the safety that he longs for is the salvation that the godly man, “the afflicted” and “the needy” (v. 5) despearately long for (Park). That is why David, in verse 1 prayed to God for “Help, Lord,” that is, he prayed for salvation. Why did David offer this prayer to the Lord?
The reason is because when those who spoke falsehood and had flattering lips and a double hearts (v. 2) were full, and the vileness was exalted among the sons of men (v. 8), the godly man was groaning because of the devastation of the afflicted and of the needy (v. 5). The reason why the godly man was devastated and persecuted was because he was truthful (v. 6). Those who boasted themselves by speaking falsehood with the flattering lips and the double hearts persecuted David who possessed the truth of the word of God. These wicked people committed sins with their lips by even saying to David, “With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” (v. 4) Would they let the godly and truthful David alone? That was why David turned to God for help. He cried out to God for His salvation. In other word, David asked for the safety. At that time, God’s answer to David’s prayer was a promise: “…I will set him in the safety for which he longs” (v. 5). It was the God's promise that He would no longer see and sit still. Since it was His appointed time, God promised that He would no longer be watching his godly people being persecuted. And God promised David that He would awaken the work of salvation as if he woke up. God said that He would keep the godly and preserve him from this generation forever (v. 7).
In this world, there are so many falsehood, flattering lips, people who speak with the double heart, the tongues of the wicked. We are living in time when there are many Christians who fall on their tongues, and more and more godly and faithful ones are disappearing. In these times, we must strive to be godly, that is, to be strong and trustworthy in character. Also, we should not give up our goal of pursuing godly life amid the oppression and persecution of the wicked people who become stronger and stronger as we become godly. Then our Lord will place us in “the safety” we want. Now, our God will no longer be just looking and be patient. He will get up and put us in the safety that we want. Victory!
With assurance of salvation,
James Kim
(Looking at the Lord who is our safety)