I am as a wonder unto many - The word here rendered “wonder” - מופת môphêth - means properly 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 in regard to him - the divine dealings toward him - had been such as to excite attention; to strike the mind as something unusual, and out of the common course, in the same way that miracles do. This might be either from the number and the character of the calamities which had come upon him; or from the narrow escapes which he had had from death; or from the frequency of the divine intervention in his behalf; or from the abundant mercies which had been manifested toward him. The connection makes it probable that he refers to the unusual number of afflictions which had come upon him, and the frequency of the divine interpositions in his behalf when there was no other refuge, and no other hope.
But thou art my strong refuge - See the notes at Psalms 18:2. That is, God had been his Protector, his hiding-place.