Psalm 12 goes:
To the choirmaster: according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.The Psalm seems to be saying that the end result of lies and deception in a culture is that the poor and the needy are exploited and oppressed. Particularly so, if you (as I do) see the Psalm chiastically (sp?), with v5a as a sort of interpretive key.
Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone;
for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue that makes great boasts,
those who say, "With our tongue we will prevail,
our lips are with us; who is master over us?"
Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,
"I will now arise", says the LORD; "I will place him in the safety for which he longs."
The words of the LORD are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.
You, O LORD, will keep them;
you will guard us from this generation forever.
On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among the children of man.
If the first casualty of war is the truth, the first casualties of the absence of truth are the vulnerable.
And yet, God's response isn't to cut off the lips of the wicked, as requested. They keep on. What he does do, is to speak into the situation himself. But his words are true. Truth that will guard his people for the duration, until the day when he will finally give David what he prayed for.