harmless mind, without cherishing or provoking enmity, and trusted unwaveringly (לא אמעד, an adverbial circumstantial clause, cf. Psa 21:8) in Jahve, he bases the petition for the proving of his injured right. He does not self-righteously hold himself to be morally perfect, he appeals only to the fundamental tendency of his inmost nature, which is turned towards God and to Him only. Psa 26:2 also is not so much a challenge for God to satisfy Himself of his innocence, as rather a request to prove the state of his mind, and, if it be not as it appears to his consciousness, to make this clear to him (Psa 139:23.). בּחן is not used in this passage of proving by trouble, but by a penetrating glance into the inmost nature (Psa 11:5; Psa 17:3). נסּה, not in the sense of πειράζειν, but of δοκομάζειν. צרף, to melt down, i.e., by the agency of fire, the precious metal, and separate the dross (Psa 12:7; Psa 66:10). The Chethîb is not to be read צרוּפה (which would be in contradiction to the request), but צרופה, as it is out of pause also in Isa 32:11, cf. Jdg 9:8, Jdg 9:12; 1Sa 28:8. The reins are the seat of the emotions, the heart is the very centre of the life of the mind and soul.
Verse 3
Psa 26:3 tells how confidently and cheerfully he would set himself in the light of God. God's grace or loving-kindness is the mark on which his eye is fixed, the desire of his eye, and he walks in God's truth. חסד is the divine love, condescending to His creatures, and more especially to sinners (Psa 25:7), in unmerited kindness; אמת is the truth with which God adheres to and carries out the determination of His love and the word of His promise. This lovingkindness of God has been always hitherto the model of his life, this truth of God the determining line and the boundary of his walk.
Verses 4-5
He still further bases his petition upon his comportment towards the men of this world; how he has always observed a certain line of conduct and continues still to keep to it. With Psa 26:4 compare Jer 15:17. מתי שׁוא (Job 11:11, cf. Psa 31:5, where the parallel word is מרמה) are “not-real,” unreal men, but in a deeper stronger sense than we are accustomed to use this word. שׁוא (= שׁוא, from שׁוא) is aridity, hollowness, worthlessness, and therefore
