Psalm 5

The Refuge of the Righteous

For the choir director: with the flutes. A psalm of David.

⁷ Look at what is obvious.^[a] If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ,^(A) let him remind himself of this: Just as he belongs to Christ, so do we. ⁸ For if I boast a little too much about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up^(B) and not for tearing you down, I will not be put to shame. ⁹ I don’t want to seem as though I am trying to terrify you with my letters. ¹⁰ For it is said, “His letters are weighty and powerful, but his physical presence is weak and his public speaking amounts to nothing.” ¹¹ Let such a person consider this: What we are in our letters, when we are absent, we will also be in our actions when we are present.

¹² For we don’t dare classify or compare ourselves with some who commend^(C) themselves. But in measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves to themselves,^(D) they lack understanding.^{(E) 13} We, however, will not boast beyond measure but according to the measure of the area of ministry that God has assigned^(F) to us, which reaches even to you. ¹⁴ For we are not overextending ourselves, as if we had not reached you, since we have come to you with the gospel of Christ. ¹⁵ We are not boasting beyond measure about other people’s labors. On the contrary, we have the hope^(G) that as your faith increases, our area of ministry will be greatly enlarged, ¹⁶ so that we may preach the gospel to the regions beyond you^(H) without boasting about what has already been done in someone else’s area of ministry.^{(I) 17} So let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.^{[b](J) 18} For it is not the one commending himself who is approved, but the one the Lord commends.^(K)

²² But^(A) be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face^[a] in a mirror. ²⁴ For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. ²⁵ But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.^(B)

²⁶ If anyone^[b] thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue,^(C) his religion is useless and he deceives himself. ²⁷ Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows^(D) in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.^(E)