Psalms 116:16

You have broken my bonds: to you I will sacrifice a victim of praise. Truly it is of great happiness so to go to the Lord that one has no defiled conscience. Whoever, being holy, dies his own death, although he be holy who has performed works of mercy, wrought signs, cast out demons, does not go to the Lord secure: his conscience shudders when he sees the Lord. But the martyr, even if he has sinned after baptism, yet washed by a second baptism, the baptism of martyrdom, goes secure to the Lord. You have broken my bonds. "For each one is bound fast by the chains of his own sins": but in my martyrdom you have broken the bonds of my sins, and out of the bonds you have plaited for me a crown of victory. "For where sin abounded, grace superabounded." To you I will sacrifice a victim of praise. After martyrdom, where does he sacrifice? In the land of the living. I will sacrifice, he says, to you a sacrifice. What kind of sacrifice? Surely not a goat, or a calf? Those were Jewish things, and they have passed away. I will sacrifice to you a victim of praise. This is the praise of the martyrs. For just as the martyrs praise the Lord purely in the land of the living, so too the monks, who day and night sing psalms to the Lord, ought to have the same purity as the martyrs: since indeed they too are martyrs. For what the angels do in the heavens, this the monks do on earth.

But now I am returning and running back to my original Lord, and I acknowledge my enslavement of old. You have broken through my bonds [Ps 115.7]. You freed me from the bonds of sin by descending into hell and releasing humanity when it was in the bonds of death and detained in the inescapable prisons of hell. - "On Psalm 115. Chapter 5."

Whoever then by this love has attained the image and likeness of God will now delight in goodness for the pleasure of goodness itself. Now having a similar feeling of patience and gentleness, they will no longer be angered by the faults of sinners, but in compassion and sympathy will rather ask for pardon for their infirmities. And remembering that for so long they themselves were was tried by the stings of similar passions till by the Lord's mercy they were saved, they will feel that, as they were saved from carnal attacks not by the teaching of their own exertions but by God's protection, pity and not anger ought to be shown to those who go astray. With full peace of mind they will sing to God the following verse: "Thou hast broken my chains. I will offer to you the sacrifice of praise." And also: "Unless the Lord had helped me, my soul would have dwelt in hell."

Learn, then, what this means: "He took on himself the form of a servant." It means that Christ took on himself all the perfections of humanity in their completeness and obedience in its completeness. And so it says in the thirtieth psalm, "You have set my feet in a large room. I am made a reproach above all mine enemies. Make your face to shine on your servant." "Servant" means the Man in whom he was sanctified; it means the Man in whom he was anointed; it means the Man in whom he was made under the law, made of the Virgin; and, to put it briefly, it means the Man in whose person he has a mother, as it is written: "O Lord, I am your servant, I am your servant and the son of your handmaid"; and again: "I am cast down and deeply humbled."

While we often read that sacrifices were offered by David to the Lord, he adds this passage: "To you I will offer sacrifice of praise." He does not say "I offer sacrifice" but "I will offer sacrifice," meaning that the sacrifice will have been completed when each one stands before the Lord, freed of the chains of this body, and offers himself as a victim of praise. For before death no praise is completed, nor could anyone in this life be praised with final praise, since his later actions are uncertain. Death then is the freeing of the soul from the body. And so we have taught what was written by the apostle: "by far the better to be dissolved and to be with Christ." And what is the effect of that dissolution? The body is released and at rest, while the soul turns to its place of repose and is free; if it is devout, it is going to be with Christ.

Many good interpreters understand it of that cup, that bitter cup, which is yet sanctified to the saints, so that to them it is a cup of salvation. 19 , This shall turn to my salvation; it is a means of spiritual health. David's sufferings were typical of Christ's, and we, in ours, have communion with his, and his cup was indeed a cup of salvation.

O L ORD , I beseech thee, deliver my soul. 5 Gracious is the L ORD , and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. 6 The L ORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.

quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:83%@v4-6

O Lord, truly I am thy servant, I am thy servant,....

Two ways men came to be servants:-- First, by birth. "Lord, I was born in thy house; I am the son of thy handmaid, and therefore thine." It, is a great mercy to be the children of godly parents, as it obliges us to duty and is pleadable with God for mercy.

THESE SENTENCES SUGGEST a contrast. David’s religion was one of perfect liberty;—“Thou hast loosed my bonds.” It was one of complete service;—“Truly l am thy servant. I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid.” Did I say the text suggested a contrast? Indeed the two things need never be contrasted, for they are found to be but part of one divine experience in the Jives of all God’s people. The religion of Jesus is the religion of liberty. The true believer can say, when his soul is in a healthy state, “Thou hast loosed my bonds.

The man of God in paying his vows rededicates himself unto God; the offering which he brings is himself, as he cries, O Lord, truly I am thy servant, rightfully, really, heartily, constantly, I own that I am thine, for thou hast delivered and redeemed me. I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid, a servant born in thy house, born of a servant and so born a servant, and therefore doubly thine. My mother was thine handmaid, and I, her son, confess that I am altogether thine by claims arising out of my birth. O that children of godly parents would thus judge; but, alas, there are many who are the sons of the Lord's handmaids, but they are not themselves his servants. They give sad proof that grace does not run in the blood. David's mother was evidently a gracious woman, and he is glad to remember that fact, and to see in it a fresh obligation to devote himself to God. Thou hast loosed my bonds, freedom from bondage binds me to thy service. He who is loosed from the bonds of sin, death, and hell should rejoice to wear the easy yoke of the great Deliverer. Note how the sweet singer delights to dwell upon his belonging to the Lord; it is evidently his glory, a thing of which he is proud, a matter which causes him intense satisfaction. Verily, it ought to create rapture in our souls if we are able to call Jesus Master, and are acknowledged by him as his servants.

THESE SENTENCES SUGGEST a contrast. David’s religion was one of perfect liberty;—“Thou hast loosed my bonds.” It was one of complete service;—“Truly l am thy servant. I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid.” Did I say the text suggested a contrast? Indeed the two things need never be contrasted, for they are found to be but part of one divine experience in the Jives of all God’s people. The religion of Jesus is the religion of liberty. The true believer can say, when his soul is in a healthy state, “Thou hast loosed my bonds. The penal fetters with which my soul was once bound are all dashed to shivers; I am free!” “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” The burdensome bonds of ceremonials are all cast to the winds. Henceforth the beggarly elements are trodden under foot; shadows have yielded to substance, and the type and the symbol cease to oppress; the true light now shineth, and the torches are quenched. “Thou hast loosed my bonds,”—that is to say, thou hast not only saved me from the penal consequences of my sin and from the heavy burden of the old Mosaic ceremonial law, but thou hast moreover delivered me from the spirit of bondage which once led me to serve thee with the fear of an unwilling slave. Thou hast taken the yoke from my neck, and the goad from behind my back. Thou hast made me thy freed man. No more do I crouch at thy feet or go to thy footstool cowering like a slave, but l came to thee with privilege of access, up to thy very throne. By the Spirit of adoption I cry, my Father. Thou dost own the kindred. For by the self-same Spirit I am sealed to the day of redemption. Thus, O Lord, “thou hast loosed my bonds.” Nor if religion has had its full sway in us, is this all.

I HAVE been wondering whether I might correctly say that I would preach, tonight, as a young man to young men. It is precisely what I should like to do, but can I do it? You are young men, I see, to a very large extent, but I wonder whether I am a young man myself. I have two opinions upon it in my own mind. Sometimes I feel very old. When I look in the mirror and see the hairs that have turned white upon my head, I suspect that I cannot be a young man! When I feel weary with my work and worn with sickness, I am persuaded that years are having their effect upon me! Yet, when I recover from sickness I feel young again—and when cheerful spirits and vivacity return, I half hope that I may still be a young man. I must not, however, deceive myself, for when I come to calculate and tally all up, I confess that if youth is essential to membership with the Young Men's Christian Association, I could not expect to be voted in. I am a little under 50 and I am a grandfather—and so I do not think that I can call myself a young man. Very well! I will not take upon myself airs and pretend to be what I am not, nor will I claim to be quite in your position upon the life-chart. I am not old, however! I suppose that I am just in the middle passage and, as a man in the center of life, I may venture, tonight, to give some little instruction and advice to you who are at its beginning. I have received a lot of advice, myself, in former years, and have borne it pretty patiently. Everybody has advised me! I must honestly admit that I have not followed all their advice, or else I had not been here! But now I think that I shall take my turn and see whether I may not give a little advice. And the advice, such as it is, shall come out of my own experience. I do not expect you to follow it blindly, for I have confessed that I have not always accepted everybody's counsel, myself.

The man of God in paying his vows rededicates himself unto God; the offering which he brings is himself, as he cries, O Lord, truly I am thy servant, rightfully, really, heartily, constantly, I own that I am thine, for thou hast delivered and redeemed me. I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid, a servant born in thy house, born of a servant and so born a servant, and therefore doubly thine. My mother was thine handmaid, and I, her son, confess that I am altogether thine by claims arising out of my birth.

I HAVE been wondering whether I might correctly say that I would preach, tonight, as a young man to young men. It is precisely what I should like to do, but can I do it? You are young men, I see, to a very large extent, but I wonder whether I am a young man myself. I have two opinions upon it in my own mind. Sometimes I feel very old. When I look in the mirror and see the hairs that have turned white upon my head, I suspect that I cannot be a young man!

I am thy servant - Thou hast preserved me alive. I live with, for, and to Thee. I am thy willing domestic, the son of thine handmaid - like one born in thy house of a woman already thy property. I am a servant, son of thy servant, made free by thy kindness; but, refusing to go out, I have had my ear bored to thy door-post, and am to continue by free choice in thy house for ever. He alludes here to the case of the servant who, in the year of jubilee being entitled to his liberty, refused to leave his master’s house; and suffered his ear to be bored to the door-post, as a proof that by his own consent he agreed to continue in his master’s house for ever.

O Lord, truly I am thy servant - In view of thy mercy in delivering me from death, I feel the obligation to give myself to thee. I see in the fact that thou hast thus delivered me, evidence that I am thy servant - that I am so regarded by thee; and I recognize the obligation to live as becomes one who has had this proof of favor and mercy. The son of thine handmaid - Of a pious mother. I see now the result of my training. I call to my recollection the piety of a mother. I rememberer how she served thee; how she trained me up for thee; I see now the evidence that her prayers were heard, and that her efforts were blessed in endeavoring to train me up for thee. The psalmist saw now that, under God, he owed all this to the pious efforts of a mother, and that God had been pleased to bless those efforts in making him his child, and in so guiding him 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 which 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. Thou hast 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.