Psalm 12 - No one is faithful

If someone was to ask you what you need at the moment and how they could pray for you what would you say? The first word of Psalm 12, sums up, what David needs at this moment as he bows his head to pray. ‘Help’, in this Psalm David asks God for help.

Learning to pray isn’t about learning a particular religious kind of language, it isn’t getting the right words, or following some kind of formula. Learning to pray is about learning who to call upon when we need help.

In the gospel stories we find different people calling out to Jesus for help. We find the disciples crying out for help in a boat in the middle of a storm, we find a desperate father worried about his precious child, a blind man by the side of the road. All of these people, and others beside, called to Jesus for help, and he heard them and He answered them.

In Matthew 9 vs 36 we read of a moment when Jesus saw a large crowd of people. It says this:

‘When he saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.’

When Jesus sees helpless people, His heart breaks, He longs to be their help. The question becomes ‘will we look to Jesus for the help that we need?’ 

In Psalm 12 we read of a time when very few people were ‘faithful’ to God. People had become self-confident saying ‘by our tongues we will prevail’ (vs 4), they felt that even in desperate trouble their own ingenuity would ‘defend’ them (vs 4).

The people however who God helps are the ones who know their need of His help, described in vs 5 as ‘the poor and the needy.’ These are the people God loves to help.

Pause for thought: Imagine Jesus looking at the crowds of people. They are harassed and helpless and he has compassion on them. At this time where are you looking for your help?