Text: Psalm 12
Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; With flattering lips and a double heart they speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, And the tongue that speaks proud things, Who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; Who is lord over us?” “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, Now I will arise,” says the Lord; “I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.” The words of the Lord are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times. You shall keep them, O Lord, You shall preserve them from this generation forever. The wicked prowl on every side, When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
Devotion
There is a holy sorrow over the church’s distress. Do you know this sorrow? Paul testifies and his conscience bears witness with him in the Holy Spirit that he has a great concern and a continual pain within him because his people are so blind. And his heart burns within him for each offense he notices in the church. This is some of the same fire that melted our Lord Jesus’ heart to tears over Jerusalem. Is there no further distress in our time, because we know this pain so little? Indeed, but love has grown cold in many, so that it is even said: “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases!” Hypocrisy, false security, lukewarmness, unbelief, yes, unbelief has taken over, and even the believers’ hearts are so tainted with it that they do not feel the seriousness of eternity, the weight of God’s wrath, the significance of grace, the importance of Christian life. So there is little joy in the Lord and little concern over the world’s troubles and the Church’s need in our hearts today.
But pure as silver, refined seven times, the Word of the Lord sounds forth among us. Hear this, you troubled, mistreated by the spirit of lies, you poor, who cry out to the Lord. Hear His pure Word that revives us, humbles us, gathers us, that creates life in the dead bones (Eze 37). Hear it. Hear it, and your soul shall live!
Closing Text
O living God, make our hearts alive. We thirst for love. Grant it to us, so that we may know its joy and its care and spend our years in showing love. Amen.
Hymn
Lord Jesus Christ, with us abide,
For round us falls the eventide;
Nor let Thy Word, that heav’nly light,
For us be ever veiled in night.
In these last days of sore distress
Grant us, dear Lord, true steadfastness
That pure we keep, till life is spent,
Thy holy Word and Sacrament.
Lord Jesus, help, Thy Church uphold, –
We are so sluggish, thoughtless, cold.
O prosper well Thy Word of grace
And spread its truth in every place!
Selnecker: L 84:1-3 ELH 511:1-3 tr. Composite;
tune: Ach, bleib bei uns