Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 12:1

"Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth," etc.: —

Back, then, complainer, loathe thy life no more,

Nor deem thyself upon a desert shore,

Because the rocks the nearer prospect close.

Yet in fallen Israel are there hearts and eyes,

That day by day in prayer like thine arise;

Thou knowest them not, but their Creator known.

Go, to the world return, nor fear to cast

Thy bread upon the waters, sure at last

In joy to find it after many days. John Keble, 1792-1866.

Verses 1, 2, 4. Consider our markets, our fairs, our private contracts and bargains, our shops, our cellars, our weights, our measures, our promises, our protestations, our politic tricks and villainous Machiavelism, our enhancing of the prices of all commodities, and tell, whether the twelfth Psalm may not as fitly be applied to our times as to the days of the man of God; in which the feigning, and lying, and facing, and guile, and subtlety of men provoked the psalmist to cry out, "Help, Lord; for there is not a godly man left: for the faithful are failed from among the children of men: they speak deceitfully every one with his neighbour, flattering with their lips, and speak with a double heart, which have said, With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own: who is Lord over us?" R. Wolcombe, 1612.