Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 116:16

"O Jehovah, truly I am thy servant: I am thy servant, the son of thy handmaid; Thou hast loosed my bonds." — Psalms 116:16 (ASV)

O Lord, truly I am your servant - In view of your mercy in delivering me from death, I feel the obligation to give myself to you. I see in the fact that you have thus delivered me, evidence that I am your servant—that I am so regarded by you; and I recognize the obligation to live as is fitting for one who has had this proof of favor and mercy.

The son of your handmaid - Of a pious mother. I see now the result of my training. I call to my recollection the piety of a mother. I remember how she served you; how she trained me up for you; I see now the evidence that her prayers were heard and that her efforts were blessed in endeavoring to train me up for you.

The psalmist saw now that, under God, he owed all this to the pious efforts of a mother. He understood that God had been pleased to bless those efforts, making him His child and guiding him so that it was not improper for him to speak of himself as possessing and carrying out the principles of a sainted mother.

It is not uncommon—and in such cases it is proper—that all the evidence we may have that we are pious—that we are living as we ought to live, that we are receiving special favors from God—recalls to our minds the instructions of early years, the counsels and prayers of a holy father or mother.

You have loosed my bonds - The bonds of disease; the fetters which seemed to have made me a prisoner to Death. I am now free again. I walk at large. I am no longer the captive—the prisoner—of disease and pain.