Many verses of the Bible tell us about God's pleasure for those who keep a right heart and its rewards, let's see some examples:
Proverbs 14: 2
He who walks in righteousness fears the LORD, but he who despises evil walks.
Psalm 11: 7
For the LORD is righteous; He loves justice; the upright will contemplate his face.
Psalm 97:11
Light has been sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.
Psalm 125: 4
Do good, LORD, to the good, and to the upright in heart.
How can I have a right heart before God?
To walk in righteousness before God is to be in holiness, like knowing if we walk in holiness, although it seems difficult, it is very easy to identify it and it is knowing what is in our heart. Our heart is a place that only God knows perfectly, only he can see it.
Although being like JESUS is impossible for man, it is not impossible to imitate him. Because of our sinful nature our heart becomes an enemy of the divine precepts, for these sins we turn away from God, so when someone gives his life to Christ we say that God works in that person's life. It is the same Holy Spirit of God who guides and transforms us in order to please Him. In spite of the fact that we encounter many setbacks, sometimes due to our own decisions, we make mistakes, fall and even doubt our salvation. The bible says that we are new creatures, that God cleanses us. God does not care about your past, your background, his word says that he threw them into the depths of the sea, we only have to confess it, repent and turn away.
To live in holiness means to please God with what we do in the simplest details of our daily walk, with our attitudes, our way of speaking, our character and our thoughts. Not only does he sin when he steals, commits adultery or kills himself, the heart is sometimes filled with rancor, hatred, envy, revenge and gossip. To live in holiness to honor God with all our life.
Psalm 117: 9 says: I will praise you with righteousness of heart
When I learn your righteous judgments.
When we know God's will and we live it we are also worshiping Him, even if we do not do it perfectly His grace covers us in that walk towards living for Him. We will only achieve perfection when our bodies are transformed 1 Corinthians 15:52) but it does not mean that let's not do the impossible to become like JESUS.
In this text David expresses his need to learn the word of God. This made the difference. David was a man like you and me, subject to passions, but with a heart surrendered before God, eager for his word and honoring him. He always received God's correction with obedience.
Psalm 139: 23-24
Examining means scrutinizing, finding out the inside or the details. When I think of David saying this to God I think he would do it so that God would show him what was in his heart, to find the most hidden thing and his goal was to change it. Asking God to examine our hearts must be a habit in our lives. If our greatest desire is to keep a right heart before God, then this must be our prayer, when we are prone to fall, we must go to the source, to our creator. God sees even what we ourselves can not imagine why we should ask him to show us and make the changes to be better every day.
GOD BLESS YOU