Examine me, O Jehovah, and put me to the test; refine my kidneys and my heart.

Along with being examined and tested, David wanted his kidneys to be refined. He wanted God to make a proof of him as a person with a fiery procedure such as a metal refiner would make when refining gold and silver. David was sure that, despite such a searching of him through and through, Jehovah would find no “dross” in him, no uncleanness, no spiritually diseased condition. He would not be found suffering, as it were, from kidney stones.

26. Similarly, what can we integrity-keepers of today ask of Jehovah, and with what confidence?

²⁶ Similarly, we honest integrity-keepers of today can ask God to probe us through and through, even as with the fiery process used by a metal refiner. Why so? Because we are confident that, under such a thoroughgoing probing, no sinful “dross” would come to the surface to prove that deep within us we are adulterated, contaminated, worldly, lacking in Christian integrity.

27. What findings on his examination of us will cause Jehovah to experience deep pleasure?

²⁷ What, then, does Jehovah’s probing of our “kidneys” reveal to him today? A spiritually healthy state, we hope, as regards what we truly are as personalities. In such a case we shall prove that we have been acting wisely and we cannot but win God’s approval.