On Palm Sunday the crowd sang Psalm 118

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday, the crowds were singing from Psalm 118. 

This is a psalm for the Jewish Passover. It was a psalm for pilgrims coming to Jerusalem to sing as they journeyed and when they worshiped.

It was a song that would have been on everyone’s mind on that Palm Sunday. What is remarkable is that they applied the words of the Passover song, to Jesus!

Jesus is entering Jerusalem on the Sunday before the Passover. On the Sunday before he was crucified.  And the people cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! Hosanna in the highest!" – from Psalm 118: 25 – 26.

The word “Hosanna” that they sang is the Hebrew word for “save” or “save now”. That is exactly what we find in verse 25 of Psalm 118 – It says, “Save now, I pray, O LORD,” or literally, “Hosanna, O LORD”. The psalmist in verse 25 is calling the LORD God to save him!

The Jews were under Roman occupation, even though they were living in the Promised Land. The nation of Israel as a political entity did not exist. And so the people were eagerly awaiting the Messiah, whom they hoped would restore the kingdom of David and they expected it to be a political earthly kingdom.

This is why the crowds also echoed verse 26 of the psalm as they said “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!” Their songs and exited procession show that they were hoping that Jesus was the Messiah.

And indeed Jesus was, and is, but not in the way that they thought. He was indeed the blessed One who came in the name of the Lord. He would bring salvation and deliverance to God’s people. He would overcome their enemies.

But not through a divinely inspired army of well trained soldiers.

He would save them on a cross, he would bleed and die for their sins and make them citizens of his heaven based Kingdom for all eternity!

When we sang our Hosanna’s on Palm Sunday, we hailed the One, our eternal King and Lord, who came to save, by giving his life – by being the Passover Lamb that takes away the sin of the world!

Hosanna! Save us, oh crucified, risen Lord!

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Hosanna!