Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.
Parallel translations
- WEB Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.
- KJV Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
- NKJV Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties;
- NASB ¶Search me, God, and know my heart; Put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts;
- NLT Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David invites God to search and know his heart and thoughts. It is a prayer of humble openness to divine examination.
Overview
Having spoken boldly against the wicked, David turns the searchlight on himself, asking the all-knowing God to test his own heart. This guards against self-righteousness and shows that zeal for God must begin with self-scrutiny. Such openness anticipates the gospel work of the Spirit, who convicts and cleanses those united to Christ (Psalm 51:10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 26:2Test me, O LORD, and try me; examine my heart and mind.
- 1 Pet 1:7so that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
- Job 31:6let God weigh me with honest scales, that He may know my integrity.
- Prov 17:3A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, but the LORD is the tester of hearts.
- Deut 8:2Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.
- Ps 139:1For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
- Zech 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 are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”
- Jer 11:20O LORD of Hosts, who judges righteously, who examines the heart and mind, let me see Your vengeance upon them, for to You I have committed my cause.
- Mal 3:2–3But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.
- Deut 8:16He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 139:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.