Psalm 26:2
Test me, Lord, and try me:
search my heart and mind.
All through elementary school Thursday nights were spent studying for the dreaded weekly spelling test. I would carefully study each word, rewriting it and practicing over and over again. Then when I finally was confident that I knew the words and would be able to spell the correctly I would bring the list to my mom or dad and ask them to test me. By this time I was confident. I knew the words. I would not ask them to test me if I still thought I would misspell words.
This same way the writer of the psalm asks the Lord to test him. He wants to prove to the Lord that he is innocent. He would not have told the Lord to test him if he was not confident that he had not faltered from the Lord. He had nothing to hide from the Lord. He tells the Lord to search my heart and his mind. He has such confidence that he has been true to the Lord that he is willing to completely open himself up for the Lord to see any faults or errors. He would not have told the Lord to test him if he was not confident or had something to hide.
Although I know that the Lord knows all our thoughts and actions I sometimes feel that I try to hide things from him. I close my heart and my mind to try to keep him from seeing the times that I faltered or failed to act like I should. Wouldn't it be great if we could have the same openness and confidence that the writer of this psalm has and be able to open our hearts and minds to the Lord with confidence that he would be pleased with what he saw. There is nothing that should be going on in our hearts or minds or in our actions that we want to hide from the Lord. So often I feel that I want to protect what is in my heart and mind because it may not be pleasing to the Lord.
Dear Lord, Help me to open my heart and mind to you with confidence.
