Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
Psalm 26 belongs among psalms relating chiefly to the sorrows and afflictions of the Hebrew captives, offering encouragement and assurance of divine help and final deliverance from persecutors. The verse is a prayer of honest self-examination asking God to examine, prove, and try the inner life, including the reins, the heart, and the deepest motives, and thereby to prove oneself. It asks God to reveal any evil within. It is to be joined to a daily plea for cleansing from secret faults and for a life of holiness. It applies to examining oneself by God's word and seeking the Holy Spirit's guidance to know whether Christ is in them.
Psalm 26 belongs among psalms relating chiefly to the sorrows and afflictions of the Hebrew captives, offering encouragement and assurance of divine help and final deliverance from persecutors. The verse is a prayer of honest self-examination asking God to examine, prove, and try the inner life, including the reins, the heart, and the deepest motives, and thereby to prove oneself. It asks God to reveal any evil within. It is to be joined to a daily plea for cleansing from secret faults and for a life of holiness. It applies to examining oneself by God's word and seeking the Holy Spirit's guidance to know whether Christ is in them.