Psalms 116:16. O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid; thou hast loosed my bonds.
What a sweet thing to be the servant of God. Well does David say it twice over. Well does he delight to look upon himself as a slave that was born in his Master’s house. "My mother," says he, "was one of thy servants. I am the son of thy handmaid." Oh! It is a blessed thing to be able to be God’s every way - to feel in looking back, "I am not only his by redemption and by the new birth, but I seem as if I was bound to be his by a long ancestry of men and women, whom his sovereign grace called to himself." Grace does not run in the blood, but it is a great mercy when it runs side by side with it; and when the handmaiden of the Lord is mother of a man who is a child of God as well as her child. "Thou hast loosed my bonds." You are never quite free, you have never got your bonds all loosed - till you can doubly feel the bonds of God. Read that: "I am thy servant. I am thy servant." That is two blows. "Thou hast loosed my bonds." There is no freedom except in perfect subjection to the will of God. When every thought is brought into captivity to the mind of God, then every thought is free. You have heard much of the freedom of the will. There is no freedom of the will till grace has bound the will in fetters of divine affection. Then is it free, and not till then. "I am thy servant - thy servant; thou hast loosed my bonds."
Psalms 116:16. O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid; thou hast loosed my bonds.
What a sweet thing to be the servant of God. Well does David say it twice over. Well does he delight to look upon himself as a slave that was born in his Master’s house. "My mother," says he, "was one of thy servants. I am the son of thy handmaid." Oh! It is a blessed thing to be able to be God’s every way - to feel in looking back, "I am not only his by redemption and by the new birth, but I seem as if I was bound to be his by a long ancestry of men and women, whom his sovereign grace called to himself." Grace does not run in the blood, but it is a great mercy when it runs side by side with it; and when the handmaiden of the Lord is mother of a man who is a child of God as well as her child. "Thou hast loosed my bonds." You are never quite free, you have never got your bonds all loosed - till you can doubly feel the bonds of God. Read that: "I am thy servant. I am thy servant." That is two blows. "Thou hast loosed my bonds." There is no freedom except in perfect subjection to the will of God. When every thought is brought into captivity to the mind of God, then every thought is free. You have heard much of the freedom of the will. There is no freedom of the will till grace has bound the will in fetters of divine affection. Then is it free, and not till then. "I am thy servant - thy servant; thou hast loosed my bonds."