Psalm 22:2 describes the sufferer's continual crying to God "by day" and "by night" without receiving an immediate answer. It poetically expresses prolonged anguish and the experience of divine silence. The verse itself does not predict a literal period of supernatural darkness.

Matthew 27:45 records that darkness covered the land from noon until three o'clock while Jesus was on the cross. Because Jesus then quotes Psalm 22:1, the entire psalm naturally forms part of the background to the passion narrative. Nevertheless, the three hours of darkness should not be presented as a direct fulfillment of Psalm 22:2; the psalm's day-and-night language describes unrelieved distress. The connection is better understood thematically: Jesus' crucifixion embodies the profound darkness and abandonment voiced by the psalm's righteous sufferer.