Psalms 26:2
Test me, O LORD, and try me; examine my heart and mind.
BSB
ASV
Examine me, O Jehovah, and prove me; Try my heart and my mind.
KJV
Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
If need be, we will not only partake of the blessings of life but bear its appointed sorrows as a trial to our souls. For in this way is divine Scripture accustomed to speak of human afflictions, by which, as gold is tried in the fire, so the human spirit is tried and is found to be worthy either of condemnation or of praise.… We are therefore prepared and are ready to say, "Try me, O Lord, and prove me; purge my reins and my heart."
There are three modes of trial here challenged, which are said in the original to refer to trial by touch, trial by smell, and trial by fire. The psalmist was so clear from the charge laid against him, that he submitted himself unconditionally to any form of examination which the Lord might see fit to employ. Examine me, O Lord. Look me through and through; make a minute survey; put me to the question, cross examine my evidence. And prove me.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Zechariah 13:9This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They…
leads to
Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
They will not labor in vain or bear children doomed to disaster; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD—they and their descendants with them.
See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
Through
Psalms 17:3You have tried my heart; You have visited me in the night. You have tested me and found no evil; I have resolved not to sin with my mouth.
leads to
Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to abide in the Lord with all their hearts.
I said, “I will watch my ways so that I will not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle as long as the wicked are present.”