This morning I was reading Psalm 26, and as I studied, I saw one of the reasons God may have called David “a man after my own heart”. As I sat in verses 2 and 3, I was convicted and was also challenged, and for both of those things I am so very grateful to the Spirit of God.
“Prove me, O Lord, and try me:
Test my heart and my mind.
For Your steadfast love is before my eyes,
And I walk in Your faithfulness.”
(Psalm 26:2-3)
My initial question was, what do the key phrases mean? “Prove me”. “Try me”, “Test my heart and mind”. With that question in mind, this word nerd went to work. Haha
Prove me (bāḥan) means to test (especially metals). It also means to investigate and/or to try by trial. Hmmm…to try by trial. I’m not sure that I would ask God for that like David did!
As I sat in the concept of testing metals, I was reminded of the time, years ago, when I purchased a little metal testing kit. Included in the kit was a loop, a magnet, a stone, and two types of acid (18k acid and silver acid).
The first step in testing the item was to look for the seal impressed somewhere on it – for instance, .925 for sterling silver. This brought to mind how we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. HE is our stamp of authenticity as to whether or not we are authentic children of God. (At this point in my musing, my heart is racing as I start seeing spiritual analogies from that testing kit).
The second test was a magnet test. You see, when you touch a magnet to something that is not pure metal, the magnet will stick. If the item has base metals within it, the magnet sticks to the base metals. This posed the question for me, “if a spiritual magnet were passed over my life, what would it detect? Would there be ‘base-metal things’ from this world in my life that need to be eradicated?” (Oh my…Now my heart is saying, ouch).
The third test was to scrape the item against the stone, leaving a light residue. As I equated myself with the metal “being tested”, I thought how unpleasant that scaping process would be. And that was only the first step in the acid test. Once the item was scraped on the stone, the acid was then applied. Where the acid was applied, if the scraping turned blue, there was silver content in the item.
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”, 1 Peter 2:9. How COOL is THAT?!!!
The fourth and last test was to apply sterling silver acid directly onto the item being tested. If the drop of acid turned red, the item contained a high content of silver. We that have been chosen have the Spirit of God within us, and we have been covered by the blood of Jesus.
James 1:2 tells us to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds”. Why? Because when we are tested by life’s trials, those tests reveal something about us. When we choose to shift our focus from how we “feel” about what we are going through, to how the trial can be used by God in our life (for our good and for His glory), it is then that we will begin to see God at work in those trials.
Let’s look at the statement in James 1 in its entirety. The rest of that sentence gives us the “why” to “count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds”.
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect
and complete, lacking in nothing.” ~James 1:2-4.
Try me (nāsâ) means to assay, to test in order to prove. The dictionary defines assay as to analyze and judge. God uses the “proving process” to see if there are things that need to be removed from our lives. HE is the only true Judge of our character. Let’s be honest, we can fool people with our appearances, and we can even fool ourselves. “Try me” is God seeing what really is, be it good, bad, or ugly, and then He knows what area of our lives need to be cleaned up.
And that is a great segue to the next phrase — “Test my heart and my mind“. Since this turned out to be longer than I had anticipated (haha), that will have to wait for next week’s blog. Until then, trust that God doesn’t waste one moment of pain. He has a plan and a purpose for every single thing that enters your life.
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you
will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
~~Philippians 1:6~~