Psalm 27

Triumphant Song of Confidence

Of David.

Abram and Lot Separate

13 So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and Lot with him, into the Negeb.^(A)

² Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. ³ He journeyed on by stages from the Negeb as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,^{(B) 4} to the place where he had made an altar at the first, and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.^{(C) 5} Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, ⁶ and the land could not support both of them living together because their possessions were so great that they could not live together. ⁷ Thus strife arose between the herders of Abram’s livestock and the herders of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites lived in the land.^(D)

¹⁴ The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,^{(A) 15} for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.^{(B) 16} I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.^{(C) 17} Rise up, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”^{(D) 18} So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks^[a] of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.^(E)

² Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!^{[a](A) 3} For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God^[b] and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh^(B)— ⁴ even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;^{(C) 6} as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

⁷ Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.^{(D) 8} More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ^{(E) 9} and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ,^[c] the righteousness from God based on faith.^{(F) 10} I want to know Christ^[d] and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.^(G)

Pressing toward the Goal

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal,^[e] but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ^[f] has laid hold of me.^(H)