Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 71:7

"I am as a wonder unto many; But thou art my strong refuge." — Psalms 71:7 (ASV)

I am as a wonder to many — The word here rendered “wonder”—מופת môphêth—properly means a miracle, a prodigy; then things that are suited to excite wonder or admiration; then, a sign, a token. See the notes at (Isaiah 8:18). The meaning here is that the course of things regarding him—God's dealings with him—were such as to excite attention and to strike the mind as something unusual and outside the common course, in the same way that miracles do.

This might be either from the number and character of the calamities that had come upon him; or from the narrow escapes he had from death; or from the frequency of divine intervention on his behalf; or from the abundant mercies that had been manifested to him.

The connection makes it probable that he refers to the unusual number of afflictions that had come upon him, and the frequency of divine interventions on his behalf when there was no other refuge and no other hope.

But you are my strong refuge — See the notes at (Psalms 18:2). That is, God had been his Protector, his hiding-place.