Psalm 12

The heading repeats "upon Sheminith," the same musical direction as Psalm 6 — probably a lower register or an eight-stringed instrument. The two psalms sit far apart in mood, so the term is about scoring, not subject.

The center of this psalm is a refiner's shop. Silver was purified by heating the ore in a crucible or a clay furnace with a blast of air from bellows, so the lead and dross oxidized and could be drawn off. The metalworker repeated the cycle until the surface went bright and still. "Purified seven times" is the workman's way of saying there is nothing left in it but silver — and that is what God's words are compared to.

"With a double heart" translates a Hebrew phrase that reads "with a heart and a heart" — two sets of books. In a world without written contracts for most transactions, where a sale was closed by a spoken word before witnesses at the gate, a man with two hearts broke the only machinery a community had.

"Our lips are our own: who is lord over us?" is the boast of people who have discovered that speech is free and consequences are slow. The psalm's reply is that the Lord will cut off flattering lips — the tongue that thought it had no owner does have one.