Psalms 22:17-21 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I may tell all my bones Theodoret observes, that when Christ was extended, and his limbs distorted, on the cross, it might be easy for a spectator literally to tell all his bones. They Namely, my enemies; look and stare at me With delight and complacency, at my calamities, and I am a spectacle to earth and heaven. They part my garments among them This also cannot be applied to David, without a strained and unprecedented metaphor, but was literally fulfilled in Christ, Matthew 27:35; John 19:24. Deliver my soul from the sword That is, from the rage and violence of mine enemies, as the next clause explains it, and, as the sword is often to be taken in Scripture. My darling Hebrew, my one, or only one, namely, his soul, as he now said, which he so terms, because it was very dear to him, or because it was left alone, and destitute of friends and helpers. From the power of the dog “The ravening fury of the dog,” says Dr. Horne, “the lion, and the unicorn, or oryx, (a fierce and untameable creature of the stag kind,) is made use of to describe the rage of the devil, and his instruments, whether spiritual or corporeal. From all these Christ supplicates the Father for deliverance. How great need have we to supplicate for the same through him!”