Concerning Psalm 116.16's "handmaid" -- the Mother of God?

[ethereality]

Verse 16 of Psalm 116:

O LORD, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your handmaid. You have loosed my bonds.

Immediately my mind was brought to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) wherein Mary is discussed as Mother of all Christians by virtue of being the Mother of God – and Mary describes herself as the handmaid of the Lord in Luke 1.38.

Is this the proper understanding of this text? What other interpretations are there? The New American Bible contains no footnotes addressing this verse. What did the original jewish writer – before Mary – intend for this text to mean? Who is God’s handmaid before Mary – who could it be except the Mother of God?

 

[Todd_Easton]

There may be earlier instances, but Conrad of Saxony, who died in 1279, in his , Chapter 10Mirror of the Blessed Virgin, identifies the handmaid in this verse with the Virgin Mary:
Fourthly, note that this Lord, who is so singularly with Mary, is the Lord whose most devout handmaid she is, as she herself testifies: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” Mary is the handmaid of God the Father, of God the Son, and of God the Holy Ghost. What wonder if she is the handmaid of that Lord, when her son is the servant of this Lord, according to the human nature assumed from His mother? He Himself confesses it in the Psalm, where He says: “O Lord, because I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid.”
St. Augustine of Hippo, who died in 430, in his Exposition on Psalm 116, identifies the handmaid in this verse with the Catholic Church.