Teks -- Psalms 12:4 (NET)

12:4 They say, “We speak persuasively; we know how to flatter and boast. Who is our master?”

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Psa 12:4 - Prevail

By raising and spreading evil reports concerning him.

Wesley: Psa 12:4 - Our own

At our own disposal to speak what we please, who can control or restrain us?

JFB: Psa 12:3-4

Boasting (Dan 7:25) is, like flattery, a species of lying.

JFB: Psa 12:3-4 - lips, and . . . tongue

For persons.

Clarke: Psa 12:4 - Our lips are our own

Our lips are our own - Many think, because they have the faculty of speaking, that therefore they may speak what they please

Old MS - The qwilk sayd, our toung we sal wyrchip, our lippes er of us, qwas our Lorde? Tha Ypocrites worchepes thair toung; for that hee tham self janglyng and settes in thaire pouste to do mykil thyng and grete: and thai rose tham that thair lippes that es thair facund and thair wyls er of tham self, nought of God, ne of haly menes lare; for thi that say qua es our Lord? that es, qwat es he to qwas rewle and conversacioun we sal be undir lout? and confourme us til? Als so to say, That es none.

Calvin: Psa 12:4 - NO PHRASE

This the Psalmist confirms more fully in the following verse: Who have said, we will be strengthened by our tongues Those must be possessed of great authority who think that, in the very falsehood to which they are addicted, they have enough of strength to accomplish their purposes, and to protect themselves. It is the utmost height of wickedness for persons to break out into such presumption, that they scruple not to overthrow all law and equity by their arrogant and boasting language; for, in doing this, it is just as if they openly declared war against God himself. Some read, we will strengthen our tongues. This reading is passable, in so far as the sense is concerned, but it scarcely agrees with the rules of grammar, because the letter ל , lamed, is added. Moreover, the sense which is more suitable is this: that the wicked persons spoken of being armed with their tongues, go beyond all bounds, and think they can accomplish by this means whatever they please; just as this set of men so deform every thing with their calumnies, that they would almost cover the sun himself with darkness.

TSK: Psa 12:4 - With // our own // who

With : Jer 18:18; Jam 3:5, Jam 3:6

our own : Heb. with us

who : Gen 3:5; Exo 5:2; Job 21:14, Job 21:15; Jer 2:31; Dan 3:15; 2Th 2:4

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Psa 12:4 - With our tongue will we prevail // Our lips are our own // Who is lord over us

With our tongue will we prevail by raising and spreading slanders and evil reports concerning him, whereby both Saul will be highly and implacably enraged against David, and the hearts of the people alienated from him; which was indeed a very likely way to prevail against, him, and that by their tongues only.

Our lips are our own i.e. at our own dispose to speak what we please.

Who is lord over us who can control or restrain us? This was not the language of their mouths, for they were Israelites, that owned a God above them, and they were subjects of Saul; but the language of their actions. Scripture oft tells us not only what men do actually say, but what they would say if they durst, or what their actions mean, as Psa 94:7 Mal 1:12 13 2:17 . They take as great a liberty in their speech as if they believed there was no God or man superior to them; because neither the fear of God, nor the reverence of men, can keep them from speaking whatsoever they please, or what they suppose makes for their interest.

Haydock: Psa 12:4 - Death

Death, by mortal sin, (Worthington) or through excessive sorrow, Jeremias li. 39. Shew me thy favour, (Calmet) and I shall be secure. Sleep is represented as nearly related to death. (Homer, Iliad xiv.) Tum consanguineus lethi sopor. (Virgil, Æneid vi.) (Haydock)

Gill: Psa 12:4 - Who have said, with our tongue will we prevail // our lips are our own // who is Lord over us

Who have said, with our tongue will we prevail,.... Either through the eloquence of them, or the outward force and power with which they are backed. The sense is, as we say, so shall it be; our words are laws, and shall be obeyed, there is no standing against them; our edicts and decrees shall everywhere be regarded: or "we will make one to prevail", or "have the dominion" ^g; meaning antichrist, the man of sin; for all this is true of the tongues of the antichristian party, and of their laws, edicts, and decrees and which have obtained everywhere, and by which the wicked one has been established in his tyrannical power and authority;

our lips are our own, or "with us" ^h: we will say what we please, and make what laws and decrees we think fit, and impose them upon men; and so change times and laws without control, Dan 7:25;

who is Lord over us? which is the very language and conduct of antichrist, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, 2Th 2:4; and is indeed the language of the hearts and lives of all wicked and ungodly men, sons of Belial, men without any yoke or restraint; who walk, and are resolved to walk, after the imagination of their own evil hearts; not knowing the Lord, and being unwilling to obey him, or to be restrained by him; see Exo 5:2.