Truly, O LORD, I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have broken my bonds.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your servant. You have freed me from my chains.
- KJV O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.
- NKJV O Lord, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have loosed my bonds.
- NASB O Lord, I surely am Your slave, I am Your slave, the son of Your female slave, You have unfastened my restraints.
- NLT O Lord, I am your servant; yes, I am your servant, born into your household; you have freed me from my chains.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The psalmist gladly confesses he is God's servant, freed from his chains. It matters because deliverance binds us in loving service to our Redeemer.
Overview
Twice calling himself God's servant, born into God's household, he celebrates being loosed from bondage. Freedom from God leads to glad servitude to God. This paradox is fulfilled in the gospel, where Christ frees us from sin's chains to become servants of righteousness (Rom. 6:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 86:16Turn to me and have mercy; grant Your strength to Your servant; save the son of Your maidservant.
- Ps 143:12And in Your loving devotion, cut off my enemies. Destroy all who afflict me, for I am Your servant.
- Ps 119:125I am Your servant; give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies.
- Jas 1:1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes of the Dispersion: Greetings.
- John 12:26If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, My servant will be as well. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.
- Acts 27:23For just last night an angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, stood beside me
- Ps 107:14–16He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke away their chains.
- 2 Chr 33:11–13So the LORD brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.
- Rom 6:22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life.
- Isa 61:1The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 116:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.