Psalm 12--A good Christian is hard to find

A friend recently had this interesting line in an email he sent: "I don't doubt God, just His darling creations." The author of Psalm 12 could relate, I think.

People will eventually let us down. Even those we trust and love the most. Sometime, somewhere that special someone, the one you look up to and admire, will mess up. Though we are crowned with glory and honor (Psalm 8), those crowns don't always shine. They have cracks. Jewels fall out.

That's the frustration of Psalm 12. Verses 1 and 2: "Help, O Lord, for there is no longer anyone who is godly; the faithful have disappeared from humankind. They utter lies to each other; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak." Where are the godly?

On the one hand, it motivates me to (despite my own faults and foibles) to stand up and say, we're here! I'm faithful (most of the time)! I don't utter lies (very often)! I don't have a double heart (on my better days)!

On the other hand, it reminds me that, in the end, our ultimate trust and hope can only be in God. "The promises of the Lord are promises that are pure" (v. 6a). That's not to say that we don't sometimes feel like God has abandoned us. Many psalms wonder that very thing. I have to depend, though, in the everlasting presence and nearness of God.