Psalm 88 is one of Scripture's darkest laments. The sufferer feels near death, overwhelmed by divine wrath, cut off from companions, and confined in darkness. Unlike many laments, the psalm ends without an explicit turn to praise or deliverance. In its original setting it voices the anguish of a faithful sufferer enduring what feels like complete abandonment.

Matthew 27:26-50 recounts Jesus' scourging, mockery, crucifixion, darkness over the land, anguished cry, and death. Matthew does not cite Psalm 88 as prophecy, so the psalm should not be treated as a detailed prediction of Calvary. Yet Christian readers have naturally heard in its language an extraordinary pattern of the isolation and nearness to death experienced by Christ. Jesus enters the deepest human darkness and suffering, though unlike Psalm 88's unresolved ending, the Gospel continues to resurrection and vindication.