Psalms 22:17 Meaning: When Suffering Is Watched
I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me.
I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
I may count all my bones. They look and stare upon me;
I count all my bones--they look expectingly, They look upon me,
I may count all my bones. They look, they stare upon me;
Meaning in one sentence
Who stares at the sufferer in Psalm 22:17, the bones or the enemies? Explore the meaning of this agonizing verse and its comfort for today.
Context
Psalm 22 is a raw cry from someone pressed to the edge of human endurance. David wrote it, but the words fit a greater Sufferer so exactly that Jesus would later echo its opening line from the cross. By verse 17, the psalmist has described enemies closing in like wild animals, his strength poured out like water, every bone out of joint. Verse 16 speaks of pierced hands and feet. Verse 18 pictures soldiers gambling for his clothes. Right between those two familiar verses sits this one: a man reduced to a skeleton, and the awful feeling that someone, or something, is watching.
Key Words
The English words look and stare carry the real weight here. In the Hebrew behind this verse, the first verb means to gaze, and the second means to look intently, even with satisfaction. The same verbs appear elsewhere in the Psalms when enemies gloat over someone's downfall. So the watching is not neutral, it is cold, even cruel.
The phrase I can count all my bones describes a body so wasted that every bone is visible. Job 33:21 pictures the same: flesh so consumed that bones stick out. This is not a complaint about a bad day. It is the language of a person whose body has become an exhibit for others to examine.
Together, these two pictures, emaciation and staring, create a double pain: the physical agony of the body and the social agony of being an object of contempt.
How Christians Read This Verse
Christians have always read Psalm 22 as pointing to Christ's crucifixion. Many early and modern commentators see in verse 17 a direct description of Jesus on the cross: His body stretched, bones prominent, enemies watching. Others note that David himself may have known this kind of suffering during a time of illness or persecution, and the psalm became a pattern for the Messiah. On the question of who is staring, some hold that the sufferer's own bones are the subject, his skeleton seems to stare back at him. But most voices, from Calvin to the Cambridge Bible, take the subject to be the enemies: they stare with contempt, exactly as the Gospels describe the crowd at Golgotha (Matthew 27:36, 39, 41). Both readings agree: the sufferer is utterly exposed.
A common misunderstanding
A common misreading is that this verse is only about physical emaciation, counting bones as a medical symptom. But the second half of the line, they look and stare at me, is not just a description of the body; it is about the social cruelty of being watched with contempt. In fact, the verbs carry a sense of malicious delight. The pain is doubled: not only do I suffer, but others feast their eyes on my suffering.
Living This Out
Some seasons of life leave you so depleted that you feel like a walking skeleton, and it seems like everyone notices. Maybe it is a long illness, a public failure, or a grief that will not lift. You catch people's glances, or you imagine them. That second layer of pain, being stared at, talked about, pitied or mocked, can hurt worse than the original trouble.
This verse gives language for that feeling. It also points to where the psalmist goes next: straight to God. He does not tell the watchers to stop. He turns to the One who is not watching from a distance, but who is near. You can do the same. Name the shame of being seen in your weakness, and hand it to God.
Main takeaway: When suffering strips you bare and others stare, you can still turn to the God who sees and does not turn away.
For Families
For ages 5, 8
Sometimes when you are hurt, people stare at you and it feels bad. You can tell God how you feel.
For ages 9, 12
This verse describes someone in terrible pain, so thin you could count his bones. Worse, people are staring at him with mean eyes. But even in that awful moment, he is talking to God. The whole psalm is a prayer. So when you feel like everyone is looking at your mistakes or your problems, remember you can always talk to God about it.
Questions People Ask
Who is speaking in Psalm 22:17?
The speaker is traditionally David, but Christians have always seen this psalm as a prophecy of Jesus' crucifixion. The New Testament quotes Psalm 22 more than any other psalm during the passion narrative. So the voice is both David's and the Messiah's.
What does 'I can count all my bones' mean?
It describes extreme physical suffering and emaciation. The body is so wasted that the bones are visible and countable, like a living skeleton. This matches Jesus' crucifixion where the body was stretched and the bones became prominent, as many commentators have noted.
Who is 'they' in 'they look and stare at me'?
Most commentators believe 'they' refers to the enemies surrounding the sufferer, the dogs, the evildoers, the crowd. They gaze with contempt or malicious delight. A few interpreters read it as the bones themselves staring, but the more natural reading is the enemies watching, as seen in Matthew 27:36 where the soldiers sit and watch Jesus.
How does Psalm 22:17 connect to Jesus' crucifixion?
Verse 16 says 'they pierced my hands and feet,' verse 18 describes soldiers casting lots for clothing, and this verse shows a body so stretched that bones can be counted. Early Christians saw these details as fulfilled in Jesus. The staring also matches the mocking crowd described in the Gospels.
Is Psalm 22 only about Jesus, or also about David?
Both. David wrote from his own experience of intense suffering and persecution. But the details go beyond anything David faced, pierced hands and feet, casting lots for clothes. So the psalm is David's prayer that also becomes a prophecy. The New Testament treats it as speaking of Christ, without canceling its original meaning for David.
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