John Calvin Commentary Psalms 22:17

"I may count all my bones; They look and stare upon me." — Psalms 22:17 (ASV)

I will number. The Hebrew word עצמות, atsmoth, which signifies bones, is derived from another word, which signifies strength; and therefore, this term is sometimes applied to friends, by whose defense we are strengthened, or to arguments and reasons which are, as it were, the sinews and the strength of the defense of a cause.

Some, therefore, interpret the passage this way: I will profit nothing by listing all my arguments in self-vindication, for my enemies are fully determined to destroy me by some means or other, whether fair or foul, without any regard for the dictates of justice.

Others explain it this way: Although I should gather together all the aids that might seem capable of offering me help, they would be of no use to me.

But the interpretation that is more commonly accepted seems to me to be also the more simple and natural, and therefore, I accept it more readily. It is this: David complains that his body was so lean and wasted that the bones appeared protruding from all parts of it, for he adds immediately after, that his enemies took pleasure in seeing him in so pitiable a condition.

Thus the two clauses of the verse are beautifully connected. The cruelty of his enemies was so insatiable that, beholding a wretched man wasted with grief and, as it were, pining away, they took pleasure in feeding their eyes with so sad a spectacle.

What follows in the next verse concerning his garments is metaphorical. It is as if he had said that all his goods had become a prey to his enemies, just as conquerors are accustomed to plunder the vanquished, or to divide the spoil among themselves by casting lots to determine the share that belongs to each.

Comparing his ornaments, riches, and all that he possessed to his garments, he complains that, after he had been stripped of them, his enemies divided them among themselves as so much booty, accompanied by their mockery of him. By this mockery, the villainy of their conduct was aggravated, because they triumphed over him as if he were a dead man.

The Evangelists quote this passage literally, as we say, and not figuratively; and there is no absurdity in their doing so.

To teach us more certainly that Christ is described to us in this psalm by the Spirit of prophecy, the heavenly Father intended that those things foreshadowed in David should be visibly accomplished in the person of His Son.

Matthew, in narrating that the paralytic, the blind, and the lame were healed of their diseases, says that this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bear our sicknesses (Matthew 8:16–17); although the prophet, in that passage, presents the Son of God to us as a spiritual physician.

We are extremely slow and backward to believe; and it is not surprising that, because of our dullness of apprehension, a demonstration of Christ’s character, palpable to our senses, has been given to us, which might arouse our sluggish understandings.