Lyrics
Help! Help, Lord
For the godly cease to be
For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men
Everybody speaks idle words with smooth-talking, flattering lips and a double heart
May the Lord cut off all truth-perverting, flattering lips and the tongue that speaks with pride
The tongue that speaks with pride
For this is what they say...
"With the words we speak we'll conquer
With our tongue and our lips, the weapons of our choice
There's no God over us"
It's a war of words
And our enemies think they will win
"For the oppression of the poor, now I will arise," says the Lord
"For the groaning of the needy, now I will arise, says the Lord
"I will give my salvation to whosoever yearns for it in his heart"
The words of the Lord are pure words
Not the lying wicked words of men
The words of the Lord are pure words
Purified pure as silver that's purified seven times
You will keep them, You'll preserve them for all time
Now and forever
The wicked prowl on every side when evil is exalted among the sons of men
Video
Meaning & Inspiration
“Psalm 12 (The Words of the Lord)” follows the psalm’s movement from alarm over deceit to confidence in God’s trustworthy speech. The opening plea, “Help, Lord,” places social collapse in spiritual terms: faithful voices seem to vanish while flattery, pride, and double-hearted words spread. Against that turmoil, the song presents divine speech as the decisive contrast. Human words manipulate and boast, but the words of the Lord are portrayed as pure, tested, and dependable.
The declaration that God will arise for the oppressed gives the song its center of hope. Salvation is not treated as an abstract idea; it answers the groaning of people harmed by falsehood and power. The image of silver purified seven times closely echoes Psalm 12 and emphasizes complete reliability. By ending with the wicked still prowling, the lyric does not pretend that evil has disappeared. Instead, it rests confidence in God’s promise to preserve the vulnerable and keep his words through every threat.
Related Scripture
- Psalm 12:1-8 The lyrics closely paraphrase the whole psalm, contrasting boastful human speech with the Lord’s pure words.