For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us like silver.
Parallel translations
- WEB For you, God, have tested us. You have refined us, as silver is refined.
- KJV For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.
- NKJV For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined.
- NASB For You have put us to the test, God; You have refined us as silver is refined.
- NLT You have tested us, O God; you have purified us like silver.
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
God has tested and refined His people like silver. It teaches that God uses trials to purify those He loves.
Overview
The psalmist acknowledges that God has tested them, refining them as silver is purified by fire. Trials are not random but God's refining work. The New Testament likewise teaches that tested faith, more precious than gold, results in praise at the revealing of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Isa 48:10See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
- Ps 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.
- 1 Pet 1:6–7In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials
- Prov 17:3A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, but the LORD is the tester of hearts.
- Job 23:10Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
- 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.’”
- 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.
- 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.
- Deut 13:3you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. For the LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
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 66:10 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.