Psalm 38:11 - Friends Stood Afar Off

There is a claim that, in Luke 23:49, where it says:

“And all his acquaintance, and the women who followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.”

Now, what they beheld was the death of Jesus.

There is a claim that this fulfills a Psalm (38:11), where the protagonist’s friends are avoiding him because of his disease.

To understand this, you have to first know how the ancient people viewed disease.

In the Babylonian Talmud (7^th century text), there is an emphasis that all disease and affliction come from sin and that “if not for sin, man wouldn’t die”. Sin was biblically held as the cause of all of one’s pains and suffering.

Psalm 38 is the first of the group of 4 psalms (38-41) where the protagonist admits being a sinner and is seeking forgiveness to relieve himself of disease and affliction. He repeatedly tells God that He knows of his sins and he regrets them, wanting relief from the suffering that He put there to cause the man to repent.

And because of this view of sin causing illness, people keeping their distance is expected. Not simply because you are diseased, but because you deserve what you got, and suffering of the body is a form of repentance.

4. “…nor is there health in my bones due to my sin.”
5. “…for my iniquities are gone over my head…they are too heavy a burden for me.”
6. “My wounds are noisome, they fester, because of my foolishness.”
19. “For I do declare my iniquity, I am full of care because of my sin.”

In short, this is about a person riddled with disease because of his sins, and wants his suffering to go away and is willing to repent.

So, if someone cites psalms 38-41 as being a prophecy of anything doing with Jesus, you can immediately discount that claim as utter nonsense.

Here’s the meme used.