Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 71:5

"For thou art my hope, O Lord Jehovah: [Thou art] my trust from my youth." — Psalms 71:5 (ASV)

For you are my hope, O Lord God - The ground of my hope and my expectation is in you.

1. I have no other help, no other defense; but
2. I have confidence; on you I do rely.

You are my trust from my youth - From my earliest years.

The meaning is that he had always trusted in God and had always found him a helper. All that he was, and all that he possessed, he owed to God; and he felt now that God had been his protector from his earliest years.

Perhaps it could not be shown certainly from this expression that he meant to say he had actually trusted in God from his youth, for the language means no more than that God had actually protected him, held him up, and had continually intervened to save and keep him.

As God had always been his Protector, he felt that he might come to Him now and put his trust in Him.