Deliver me in Your righteousness, and set me free;
Incline Your ear to me and save me.
Be to me a God for protection
And a strong place for salvation,
For You are my foundation and my refuge.
O my God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner,
From the hand of those who transgress the law and act unjustly;
For You are my patience, O Lord;
The Lord is my hope from my youth.
By You I have been supported from birth;
From my mother’s womb You have been my protector;
My song shall be always of You. (Ps 71:1-6)
Unless the passage is carefully considered it can affront some, because it is seen to have added to God’s protection a fortified place, as if a place could defend a person when heavenly power does not protect him. But the first statement begs that his soul be protected from spiritual enemies, and then he asks also for physical safety, which is defended from the darts and swords of enemies by a well-fortified place. The metaphor is drawn from fortresses, because we escape opponents when we are defended by well-fortified places. But the divine protection is this place; as the psalmist says in another psalm: Protect me under the shadow of your wings. When we are with Christ, we fear none of the devil’s ambushes, for when divine protection is at hand, that most wicked of creatures is cheated of his aspiration. Observe how beautifully each term is accorded its proper description; firmament is associated with protector, refuge with place of strength. He rightly believed that both come to him from the Lord, for he achieved nothing by his own powers. I reckon that there is a further distinction here; the Lord is said to be a firmament in this world, where patience too is sought, whereas He is a refuge in that eternal blessedness where by then no danger is feared.
He spoke of my hope from my youth. How could he put his strength in God when he grew in his mother’s womb without the resource of reason, especially as we read in Scripture: For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive me? But we must interpret womb here as the womb of holy mother Church, in which we are first conceived with the basic teaching of the faith, and then born of water and the Holy Spirit. The Lord can be our strength when we come to Him with the gift of faith. He added: You are my protector; precisely so, since He protects and defends us against the wicked deeds of the devil, and in this world affords us escape from possible death under the weight of sins. Next follows our repayment of these rewards, so that just as the kindnesses are never-ending, so the singing of psalms ought to be unceasing; for if no time is empty of gifts, why should anyone interrupt praise of the Lord? Continually signifies both the present and the future age. In this world we sing to Him to win deliverance; in the next we give thanks for our eternal reward. So the Lord ought always to be praised, for all His gifts are unceasing.
Cassiodorus, Exposition on the Psalms 70.3, 6
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