Psalms 116:16

16 O LORD, surely I am 1Your servant, I am Your servant, the 2son of Your handmaid, You have 3loosed my bonds.

Psalms 116:16 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 116:16

O Lord, truly I [am] thy servant, I [am] thy servant
Not merely by creation, and as obliged by providential favours; but by the grace of God, which made him a willing one: and he was so, not nominally only, but in reality; not as those who say Lord, Lord, but do not the will of God; whereas he served the Lord cheerfully and willingly, in righteousness and true holiness: and this he repeats for the confirmation of it, and to show his heartiness in the Lord's service, and his zealous attachment to him; and which he mentions, not as though he thought his service meritorious of anything at the hand of God; but that his being in this character was an obligation upon him to serve the Lord, and him only, and might expect his protection in it;

[and] the son of thy handmaid;
his mother was also a servant of the Lord; and had trained him up in his infancy in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; so that he was inured to it early, and could not easily depart from it;

thou hast loosed my bonds;
the bonds of affliction and death in which he was held; these were loosed, being delivered from them, ( Psalms 116:3 Psalms 116:8 ) ; and the bonds of sin, and Satan, and the law, in whose service he had been, which was no other than a bondage; but now was freed from the servitude and dominion of sin, from the captivity of Satan, and the bondage of the law; and therefore, though a servant, yet the Lord's free man.

Psalms 116:16 In-Context

14 I shall pay my vows to the LORD , Oh may it be in the presence of all His people.
15 Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His godly ones.
16 O LORD , surely I am Your servant, I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid, You have loosed my bonds.
17 To You I shall offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, And call upon the name of the LORD .
18 I shall pay my vows to the LORD , Oh may it be in the presence of all His people,

Cross References 3

  • 1. Psalms 86:16; Psalms 119:125; Psalms 143:12
  • 2. Psalms 86:16
  • 3. Psalms 107:14

Footnotes 1

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