C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on Psalms 26:2

Psa 26:1-2

The poet, as one who is persecuted, prays for the vindication of his rights and for rescue; and bases this petition upon the relation in which he stands to God. שׁפטני, as in Psa 7:9; Psa 35:24, cf. Psa 43:1. תּם (synon. תמים, which, however, does not take any suffix) is, according to Gen 20:5., 1Ki 22:34, perfect freedom from all sinful intent, purity of character, pureness, guilelessness (ἀκακία, ἀπλότης). Upon the fact, that he has walked in a 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.