Psalm 25:2

Prove me, O Lord, and try me; burn my reins and my heart. (Psalm 25:2 DR)

In English we sometimes speak of a particularly trying experience as a crucible, especially in relation to how we come out on the other side. In the midst of this painful experience we find out what we are made of, how sure our convictions are, or what we really believe or who our friends really are. Suffering has a way of laying bare our pretensions and revealing what lies under the surface.

The word crucible comes from the medieval Latin crucibulum, which referred to a pot for melting metals. Crucibulum is uncertain in etymology, although it may have been derived from crux meaning cross, conjoined with the suffix -bulum which indicates instrumentation. The alchemical symbol for a crucible is the Latin 🝨, and this common symbol for the cross (or crux) no doubt aided in this etymological identification.

To go through the crucible is thus a trial by fire, and this is precisely what the Psalmist requests of the Lord. Having already declared his innocence and his confidence in God’s mercy and judgment, he now asks that he be thoroughly examined, that even his motivations and passions be laid bare and shown to be pure. Elsewhere the Psalmist gives voice to this desire:

Who can understand sins? from my secret ones cleanse me, O Lord: And from those of others spare thy servant. If they shall have no dominion over me, then shall I be without spot: and I shall be cleansed from the greatest sin. (Psalm 18:13-14 DR)

St. Robert Bellarmine sees in this passage a desire for vindication, in that the Psalmist wishes others to also be mindful of his innocence. It will be remembered that in this Psalm David is in exile, unjustly hunted by King Saul and labeled as a traitor to his people and usurper to the crown. Even though he was not conscious of any sin and harbored no malice, he nevertheless suffers under the weight of this unjust judgment upon him. He thus prays that God will make manifest his innocence:

Having stated that he led an innocent life, he proves it by the testimony of God himself, who neither can deceive nor be deceived; for he does not tell God to “prove and try him,” in order to come at truth of which he was ignorant, but that he may make known to others what he in secret sees. David then, on the strength of a good conscience, and in the sincerity of his heart, speaks to the Lord, saying: “Prove me and try me;” search with the greatest diligence, examine the inmost and deepest recesses of my heart; nay more, “burn my reins and my heart,” examine my thoughts and desires as carefully as gold, when tested by the fire. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 25, 2.)

The “reins and heart” of which the Psalmist speaks refer to the passions and thoughts or will, respectively. The reins are thus the desires that lead us to delight in one thing or another, whereas the heart is the determination to attain or reject that thing:

How then is the righteous man directed in so great confusion of pretence, save while God searches the hearts and reins; seeing all men’s thoughts, which are meant by the word heart; and their delights, which are understood by the word reins? (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 7, 9.)

The Psalmist therefore is asking that God put his passions and thoughts and will into the crucible to determine their purity, that it will be manifest that he has not sinned but has been constant in his innocence. Earlier we saw the Psalmist ask to be delivered from secret sins, and thus he does not maintain his innocence on his own account, but rather submits that judgment to God. He recognizes that he cannot fully know himself unless God makes this manifest to him, and there may lurk within his soul secret delights in evil or secret motivations of malice. But confident in his innocence, he asks God to reveal all by means of testing him so that he will not be under the dominion of even secret sin:

“Prove me, O Lord, and try me.” Lest, however, any of my secret sins should be hid from me, prove me, O Lord, and try me, making me known, not to You from whom nothing is hid, but to myself, and to men. “Burn my reins and my heart.” Apply a remedial purgation, as it were fire, to my pleasures and thoughts. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 25, 3.)

The Latin word for try is tenta, which will be familiar from the penultimate line of the Lord’s prayer: et ne nos inducas in tentationem; and lead us not into temptation. God does not tempt us (cf. James 1:13) but rather allows temptation to act as this crucible, to prove us and try us, to purify our thoughts and our passions:

Prove me, O God, and know my heart: examine me, and know my paths. And see if there be in me the way of iniquity: and lead me in the eternal way. (Psalm 138:23-24 DR)

St. James is explicit that temptation is the means by which God tries our faith:

My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations; knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience… And patience hath a perfect work; that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing. (James 1:3-4 DR)

Temptation reveals to us our weaknesses, for our souls are like a fortress, and the devil will attack the areas which seem the weakest, just like any assailing army would focus its efforts on the weakest part of the wall. But when we withstand this temptation that God allows, we gain a victory and are strengthened and perfected:

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been proved, he shall receive a crown of life, which God hath promised to them that love him. (James 1:12 DR)

In the book of Tobit the elder Tobias was a righteous man who faithfully buried the dead, kept the law and gave alms even while in exile, and at great risk to himself. He then ran into the misfortune of being blinded, and in his extremity prayed that he would die. Believing that his prayer would be answered, he sent his son Tobias to collect on a debt so that the son and mother would have something to live on. As the story winds its way through, Tobias is brought back safely by the archangel Raphael and the elder Tobias is cured of his blindness. As Raphael reveals who he really is, he explains the purpose of all the suffering:

When thou didst pray with tears, and didst bury the dead, and didst leave thy dinner, and hide the dead by day in thy house, and bury them by night, I offered thy prayer to the Lord. And because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove thee. (Tobit 12:12-13 DR)

In this manner the crucible of trials and temptation—and the concomitant sufferings they bring—are in fact part of God’s mercy towards us, for what the devil intends for evil God turns into good, and the afflictions that we suffer on their account can be meritorious just as they were for Tobias:

“These persistent temptations come from the malice of the devil,” says St. Francis de Sales, “but the trouble and suffering they cause us come from the mercy of God. Thus, despite the will of the tempter, God converts his evil machinations into a distress which we may make meritorious. Therefore I say your temptations are from the devil and hell, but your anxiety and affliction are from God and heaven.” Despise temptation, then, and open wide your soul to this suffering which God sends in order to purify you here that He may reward you hereafter. (R. P. Quadrupani, Light and Peace, Part I., Chapter 2., 3.)

St. Bellarmine thinks this passage refers primarily to a more minute examination of conscience rather than exterior trials:

I do not think David asks here to be proved and tried by adversity, or that “his reins and heart” should be scorched by the fire of tribulation, when he seems to be asking for the very contrary; but he asks, as I stated before, to be “proved and tried” by a most minute examination and inspection; and God having the most minute and exact knowledge of everything, that he may declare to the world the innocence of his servant, and thus silence the calumny of his enemies. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 25, 2.)

Origen of Alexandria, on the other hand, sees this as pertaining to trials and tribulations:

[I]f need be, we will not only partake of the blessings of life, but bear its appointed sorrows as a trial to our souls. For in this way is divine Scripture accustomed to speak of human afflictions, by which, as gold is tried in the fire, so the spirit of man is tried, and is found to be worthy either of condemnation or of praise. For those things which Celsus calls evils we are therefore prepared, and are ready to say, “Try me, O Lord, and prove me; purge my reins and my heart.” For no one will be crowned, unless here upon earth, with this body of humiliation, “he strive lawfully.” (Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus, Book VIII, Chapter 56.)

Both interpretations are of course compatible, as both methods are used by our Lord to prove and try us, to burn our reins and our hearts. Oftentimes this exacting examination of conscience is prompted by exterior trials, as we seek to know ourselves and our motivations more fully so that we can align our affections and thoughts and wills with God’s. When temptation comes and the fires of that crucible heat up, we can face them with confidence as our Lord taught us to pray, for et ne nos inducas in tentationem is always followed by the prayer of supreme hope in God’s mercy and grace: sed libera nos a malo; but deliver us from evil.

“Let the wind blow,” remarks the same Saint, “and do not mistake the rustling of leaves for the clashing of arms. Be perfectly convinced that all the temptations of hell are powerless to defile a soul that does not love them. St. Paul endured terrible temptations, yet God, through love, did not deliver him from them.” Look upon God as an infinitely good and tender father and believe that He only allows the devil to try His children that their merits may increase and their recompense be correspondingly greater. (R. P. Quadrupani, Light and Peace, Part I., Chapter 2., 4.)

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This one was fairly easy to work out, as I used Trapcode Mir to make the fire effects and then added in some heat distortion and color correction to finish off.

Enjoy.

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