Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause ME to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me.
Psalm 71:2.
Two modes of preservation are highlighted in our text: deliverance and escape, both being types of salvation. God is involved in all, but to different degrees. ‘In His righteousness,’ that is, usually without reference to my rightlessness or any significant input from me, God can deliver me. At other times, however, He merely opens the door and lets me use my legs to complete the salvation process. That is, He causes ‘ME’ to consciously get myself out of the obvious danger. That is escape. Either way, God has ‘saved’ me.