Psalm 88:18
You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
my companions have become darkness.
We were in a pit, a deep cellar in the basement of Caiaphas’ house in Jerusalem. We were told that Jesus would have been lowered into this pit through a hole in the ceiling, the only way into or out of this place of isolated imprisonment. There would have been no windows. I was asked to read Psalm 88 (see below). When I read the last verse, “You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness,” our guide suddenly turned out the lights. We were in darkness. The words of this psalm became ever more real for me in that pit.
There are other passages from the Old Testament that point to suffering and redemption which Jesus fulfilled in his life, ministry and death. Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 are two important examples. I more often had connected Jesus’ ministry with those passages. But as I read Psalm 88 that day, I was struck as to how Jesus embraced all of Scripture in ways I had not previously appreciated.
On this Good Friday we will hear Jesus’ seven words from the cross. We will remember his suffering. We will reflect on his death. We rightly do this, for Jesus went to the pit for us; he didn’t deserve this. He went to the cross for us; he had done no wrong. He suffered the abandonment of God, though he had lived his whole life in obedient love for the Father. And when he died, he died in faith. He said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,” and breathed his last. (Luke 23:46)
On this Good Friday we will extinguish the candles – one at each of Jesus’ sayings from the cross. The service of darkness (Tenebrae) is a powerful emotional and spiritual experience. But the real question for us all has to do with not only how Jesus died and the darkness that brought to the world. But how we will live once the darkness gives way. For when it gives way the stunning love of God in his redemptive suffering can easily be forgotten. He died for the sins of the world. He rose for our justification. Darkness will give way. But today we thank God for the darkness, we embrace it. For it is the place where we may see clearly how much God loves us, having gone there for us and for our salvation.
Psalm 88
O Lord, God of my salvation;
I cry out day and night before you.
2 Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry!
3 For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am a man who has no strength,
5 like one set loose among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
for they are cut off from your hand.
6 You have put me in the depths of the pit,
in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
8 You have caused my companions to shun me;
you have made me a horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9 my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon you, O Lord;
I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But I, O Lord, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16 Your wrath has swept over me;
your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long;
they close in on me together.
18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
my companions have become darkness.
David Bahn - Reflections 
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