Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
Parallel translations
- WEB Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.
- BSB Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.
- 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 26:2Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
- 1 Pet 1:7That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
- Job 31:6Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know mine integrity.
- Prov 17:3The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.
- Deut 8:2And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
- Ps 139:1O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
- Zech 13:9And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
- Jer 11:20But, O LORD of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I revealed my cause.
- Mal 3:2–3But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
- Deut 8:16Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.