Read
Psalm 38:11
My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.
9Lord, all my desire is before you. My groaning is not hidden from you.
10My heart throbs. My strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me.
11My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.
12They also who seek after my life lay snares. Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and meditate deceits all day long.
13But I, as a deaf man, don’t hear. I am as a mute man who doesn’t open his mouth.
Notice
Friends and kin stand far away while the speaker suffers, exposing the added pain of distance from the people closest to him.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What experiences, if any, come to mind when you read that friends “stand aloof”?
Write on thisWho in your circle might be facing illness with little contact from friends or kin?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Matthew 26:31Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of me tonight, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock …The psalm describes loved ones standing far away; Jesus speaks of his disciples stumbling and the flock being scattered.
Psalm 31:11Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, a horror to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.Both speakers describe social rejection in distress: friends stand aloof in Psalm 38, while acquaintances flee in Psalm 31.
Luke 23:49All his acquaintances and the women who followed with him from Galilee stood at a distance, watching these things.Both passages describe people known to the sufferer standing at a distance, though Luke says they remain watching.
Job 6:15My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;Both speakers describe people close to them failing them: friends stand aloof in the psalm, and Job compares his brothers to unreliable brooks.
Job 19:13–17“He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.Both speakers describe estrangement from kin and acquaintances, with Job also naming God as the one who has put his brothers far away.
Proverbs 19:7All the relatives of the poor shun him; how much more do his friends avoid him! He pursues them with pleas, but they are gone.Both texts name avoidance by relatives and friends, though the psalm speaks of a plague and Proverbs speaks of poverty.
Job 6:21For now you are nothing. You see a terror, and are afraid.Both speakers describe failed support amid distress; Job names his listeners’ fear, while the psalm leaves the friends’ motives unstated.
Job 19:14My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.Both speakers name the absence of relatives and friends, with Job adding the pain of being forgotten.
Psalm 88:18You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.Both laments name distance from lover and friend; Psalm 88 also attributes that distance to God.
John 16:32Behold, the time is coming, yes, and has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, …Both passages speak of being left without close companions; Jesus also states that the Father remains with him.
Luke 22:54They seized him and led him away, and brought him into the high priest’s house. But Peter followed from a distance.Distance marks both scenes: the sufferer’s kin stand far away, and Peter follows Jesus from a distance after his arrest.
Luke 10:31–32By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.Both passages describe separation from another person: loved ones stand far away, while the priest passes by on the other side.
Where this verse fits
Loneliness. illness or diagnosis.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The distance of loved ones belongs in prayer too. In the surrounding lines, the speaker’s groaning remains known to God even while friends stand far away.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 38:11. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
Keep goingPsalm 38 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms
Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).