Test me, O LORD, and try me; examine my heart and mind.Examine me, Yahweh, and prove me. Try my heart and my mind.Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.Examine me, O Jehovah, and prove me; Try my heart and my mind.
4 sermons cite this verse
… just by what I'm thinking. the scripture tells us in psalm 26 verses 2 through 3 test me oh lord this would be a great prayer for us to pray every day and try me oh lord examine my heart and my mind for i've always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness so here we have The same setup. Starts in the heart. Think about Cain and Abel. That's where it started. Goes to the head. And now it gets into our thoughts. Those negative, dirty, those murderous thoughts, our murderous mind. When you drive around the Dallas-Fort Worth area, I'm sure, like you do, now and then you'll see cemeteries. cemeteries mark where people are buried I want to ask you about your relational cemetery in your mind have you buried anyone there? Maybe an ex-spouse, maybe that coach, maybe someone who took advantage of you. Maybe a former friend, maybe a business partner that ripped you off. Wow, this is very convicting stuff, isn't it, friends? …
3. Examine yourself, Do I not indirectly at least forbid him, on any of these grounds? Am I not sorry that God should thus own and bless a man that holds such erroneous opinions? Do I not discourage him, because he is not of my Church, by disputing with him concerning it, by raising objections, and by perplexing his mind with distant consequences? Do I show no anger, contempt, or unkindness of any sort, either in my words or actions? Do I not mention behind his back, his (real or supposed) faults —his defects or infirmities? Do not I hinder sinners from hearing his word? If you do any of these things, you are a bigot to this day. 4. “Search me, O Lord, and prove me. Try out my reins and my heart! Look well if there be any way of” bigotry “in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” In order to examine ourselves thoroughly, let the case be proposed in the strongest manner. What, if I were to see a Papist, an Arian, a Socinian casting out devils? If I did, I could not forbid even him, without convicting myself of bigotry. Yea, if it could be supposed that I should see a Jew, a Deist, or a Turk, doing the same, were I to forbid him either directly or indirectly, I should be no better than a bigot still. …
3. In particular: If there is not a word in your tongue, not a syllable you speak, but he “knoweth it altogether;” how exact should you be in “setting a watch before your mouth, and in keeping the door of your lips!” How wary does it behove you to be in all your conversation; being forewarned by your Judge, that “by your words you shall be justified, or by your words you shall be condemned!” How cautious, lest “any corrupt communication,” any uncharitable, yea, or unprofitable discourse, should “proceed out of your mouth;” instead of “that which is good to the use of edifying, and meet to minister grace to the hearers!” 4. Yea, if God sees our hearts as well as our hands, and in all places; if he understandeth our thoughts long before they are clothed with words, how earnestly should we urge that petition, “Search me, O Lord, and prove me; try out my reins and my heart; look well if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” Yea, how needful is it to work together with him, in “keeping our hearts with all diligence,” till he hath “cast down imaginations,” evil reasonings, “and everything that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and brought into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ!” 5. On the other hand, if you are already listed under the great Captain of your salvation, seeing you are continually under the eye of your Captain, how zealous and active should you be to “fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life;” “to endure hardship, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ;” to use all diligence, to “war a good warfare,” and to do whatever is acceptable in his sight! How studious should you be to approve all your ways to his all-seeing eyes; that he may say to your hearts, what he will proclaim aloud in the great assembly of men and angels, “Well done, good and faithful servants!” …
3. May we not learn hence, Thirdly, the wisdom of that caution, “Let him who thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall?” Or, to render the text more properly,) “Let him that assuredly standeth take heed lest he fall.” How firmly soever he may stand, he has still a deceitful heart. In how many instances has he been deceived already! And so he may again. Suppose he be not deceived now, does it follow that he never will? Does he not stand upon slippery ground? And is he not surrounded with snares? Into which he may fall and rise no more? 4. Is it not wisdom for him that is now standing, continually to cry to God, “Search me, O Lord, and prove me; try out my reins and my heart! Look well, if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting?” Thou alone, O God, “knowest the hearts of all the children of men:” O show thou me what spirit I am of, and let me not deceive my own soul! Let me not “think of myself more highly than I ought to think.” But let me always “think soberly, according as thou hast given me the measure of faith!” Halifax, April 21, 1790