Psalms 17:3

_THOU HAST PROVED MINE HEART; THOU HAST VISITED ME IN THE NIGHT; THOU HAST TRIED ME, AND SHALT FIND NOTHING; I AM PURPOSED THAT MY MOUTH SHALL NOT TRANSGRESS._ Thou hast proved ... tried me - as pure gold tested by the searching fire, and found to have no dross. The Hebrew for tried is literally 'melted me.' The preterite tenses express the past reaching on to the present: Thou hast proved me, and the result is thou findest nothing (against me in respect to insincerity), and shalt find nothing. IN THE NIGHT - the time when especially good and evil thoughts in the soul are accustomed to start up, there being nothing outward to draw off the attention: 'when secrecy and solitude prompt the hypocrite to sin, and the undisciplined imagination wanders abroad like a bird of darkness after forbidden objects' (Horne). So Psalms 16:7. This psalm was probably an evening-so

3._Thou hast proved my heart. _Some are of opinion that in the three first verbs the past tense is put for the future. Others more correctly and more clearly resolve the words thus: If thou provest my heart, and visitest it by night, and examinest it thoroughly, there will not be found any deceit therein. But without making any change upon the words, they may be suitably enough explained in this way: Thou, Lord, who understandest all the secret affections and thoughts of my heart, even as it is thy peculiar prerogative to try men, knowest very well that I am not a double man, and do not cherish any deceit within. What David intended to express is certainly very evident. As he was unjustly and falsely charged with crime, and could obtain neither justice nor humanity at the hands of men, he appeals to God, requesting he would become judge in the matter. (346) But not to do this rashly, he...

1-7 This psalm is a prayer. Feigned prayers are fruitless; but if our hearts lead our prayers, God will meet them with his favour. The psalmist had been used to pray, so that it was not his distress and danger that now first brought him to his duty. And he was encouraged by his faith to expect God would notice his prayers. Constant resolution and watchfulness against sins of the tongue, will be a good evidence of our integrity. Aware of man's propensity to wicked works, and of his own peculiar temptations, David had made God's word his preservative from the paths of Satan, which lead to destruction. If we carefully avoid the paths of sin, it will be very lead to destruction. If we carefully avoid the paths of sin, it will be very comfortable in the reflection, when we are in trouble. Those that are, through grace, going in God's paths, should pray that their goings may be held up in tho...

Verse Psalms 17:3. _THOU HAST PROVED MINE HEART_] Thou well knowest whether there be any evil way in me. Thou hast given me to see many and sore trials; and yet, through thy mercy, I have preserved my integrity both to thee and to my king. Thou hast seen me in my most _secret_ retirements, and knowest whether I have _plotted_ mischief against him who now wishes to take away my life. _THOU HAST TRIED ME_] צרפתני _tseraphtani_; Thou _hast put me to_ _the test_, as they do _metals_, in order to detect their _alloy_, and to _purify_ them: well expressed by the _Vulgate, Igne me examinasti_, "Thou hast tried me by fire;" and well paraphrased in my old _Psalter_, - _Thu examynd_ me the lykkenyng of the fournas, that purges metal, _and imang_ al this, wykednes es nout funden in me: that es, I am funden cl

THOU HAST PROVED MINE HEART - In this verse he refers to his own character and life in the matter under consideration, or the consciousness of his own innocence in respect to his fellow-men who are persecuting and opposing him. He appeals to the Great Searcher of hearts in proof that, in this respect, he was innocent; and he refers to different forms of trial on the part of God to show that after the most thorough search he would find, and did find, that in these respects he was an innocent man, and that his enemies had no occasion to treat him as they had done. It is still to be borne in mind here that the trial which the psalmist asks at the hand of God was not to prove that he was innocent toward him, or that he had a claim to His favor on account of his own personal holiness, but it was that he was innocent of any wrong toward those who were persecuting him, or, in other words, that...

EXPOSITION THIS psalm is termed "a prayer"—"a Prayer of David." It consists, no doubt, mainly of a series of petitions (Psalms 17:1, Psalms 17:2, Psalms 17:6, Psalms 17:7, Psalms 17:8, Psalms 17:9, Psalms 17:13, Psalms 17:14); but contains also a number of verses which have no precatory

THOU HAST PROVED MINE HEART,.... This properly belongs to God, who is the searcher of the heart and reins, and is desired by all good men; and though God has no need to make use of any means to know the heart, and what is in it; yet in order to know, or rather to make known, what is in the hearts of his people, he proves them sometimes by adversity, as he did Abraham and Job, and sometimes by prosperity, by mercies given forth in a wonderful way, as to the Israelites in the wilderness, Deuteronomy 8:2; sometimes by suffering false prophets and false teachers to be among them, Deuteronomy 13:3; and sometimes by leaving corruptions in them, and them to their corruptions, as he left the Canaanites in the land, and as he left Hezekiah to his own heart,...

Psalms 17:1. _Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips._ Good men are often slandered and misunderstood; and, at such times, the first verse of this Psalm will well fit their lips: «Hear the right, O Lord.» And, at all times, it is a great blessing when a supplicant can say to God, «Give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.» It must be a dreadful thing to pray with lips that do not speak the truth. When men's thoughts are far away from their prayers, and they are muttering pious words but their heart is absent, what a mockery it must be in the sight of God! A dead prayer, who will own it? It is like the child that was overlaid in the days of Solomon, which neither of the two mothers would own to be hers, Beware of dead prayers. You may dress them up as finely as you like; but, if there is no life in the

Psalms 17 The Prayer of Christ Against the Enemy _ 1. The Righteous Intercessor (Psalms 17:1)_ 2. Prayer for deliverance (Psalms 17:6) 3. The deliverance (Psalms 17:13) Psalms 17:1. This Psalm is blessedly linked with the foregoing one. We hear Christ interceding for the saints in whom is His delight (16:3). He pleads His own perfection. He is righteous; His prayer does not come from feigned lips. Not David, but Christ alone could truly say, “Thou hast proved my heart; Thou hast visited me in the night; Thou hast tried me. T

XVII. THE PRAYER OF A GODLY MAN FOR DELIVERANCE FROM HIS FOES. These foes are not foreign enemies but worldly Jews who persecute their pious and innocent neighbours. The cry for Divine help is made in Psalms 17:1 and is repeated in Psalms 17:6; Psalms 17:13. PSALMS 17:1. In Psalms 17:2 follow _mg._ Psalms 17:3_ b_. With slight alteration of the text translate Thou shalt find no evil thought in me; my mouth shalt not transgress. Such self-complace