Preparing for the End

Ps 88 is most likely the Psalm sung by Jesus Himself during the night before His crucifixion. In the house of Ciaphas, the high priest, there is a basement holding cell in which prisoners had to be lowered by rope through a small hole in the top. As we know, Jesus was led from pillar to post, from here to yon, from priest to potentate, yet there was the time spent alone in this dungeon cell. I'll never forget standing in this cell, but there were 2 things different from then 'til now. He had no staircase and no light bulb. So there in the eerie and lonley darkness, the Savior sang this psalm.

Read this Psalm and see the significance of each verse, each phrase, relating them to the Savior's plight that horrible night, every bit as excruciating as His crucifixion the next day.

Notice especially the last verse, bearing Peter and Judas in mind. Peter was warming the hands by the devil’s fire in the courtyard adjacent to this place and Judas was hanging out on a tree limb nearby.

Oh Jesus, you are near and dear to us in our darkest hours, may we keep near unto you when you need us!

Psa 88:1 O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:
Psa 88:2 Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;
Psa 88:3 For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
Psa 88:4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:
Psa 88:5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.
Psa 88:6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
Psa 88:7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.
Psa 88:8 Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.
Psa 88:9 Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
Psa 88:10 Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.
Psa 88:11 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?
Psa 88:12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
Psa 88:13 But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.
Psa 88:14 LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?
Psa 88:15 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
Psa 88:16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.
Psa 88:17 They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.
Psa 88:18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.