#DailyDevotion Jesus Is YHWH To Whom We Cry Save Us!
Joh 12:12-16 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. (13) So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” (14) And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, (15) “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” (16) His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.
As Jesus was entering into Jerusalem, the large crowd that had come to the feast went out to meet Jesus. This large crowd was no doubt many of those who had heard him teach and see the miracles he had done in Galilee. Some may have been from the Judean countryside who had heard him teach on occasion and heard how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. They started shouting “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” Now this is from the Psalms, Psa 118:25-26 “Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! (26) Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD.”
This is a song of deliverance. The crowds recognized Jesus as their Messiah, the one who stood in the place of the Lord. They may not have yet recognized Jesus was and is their Lord, but the song they sing attributes to Jesus being the Lord in the Psalm. The Lord was Israel’s king even before he had given them David. To David the Lord had promised to join himself in an incarnational way, i.e. he himself would become David’s seed who would rule forever. Jesus is that Lord and that seed of David. Jesus is the LORD in Psalm 118 to whom “Hosanna, Save Us!” is directed towards.
Yet either sometime before this or sometime shortly afterwards, the previous verses of Psa 118:22-23, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. (23) This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” Jesus quotes to the Pharisees who were rejecting his reign and rule. They will not cry out Hosanna. Instead they will cry out “Crucify him!” Now this too is prophesied in Psalm 118 as Jesus feels the pressure mounting by his opposition, taking him to Calvary.
Jesus is also fulfilling the words of Zechariah the prophet, Zec 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Moved by the Spirit, the people recognize Jesus as their king, as their Messiah. Though his disciples, the twelve, did not realize the full import of this until later they too recognize Jesus as their Messiah. Jesus, the King of Israel, from when he made them a people in Egypt, brought them through the wilderness, settled them in Canaan had now come in the flesh, through the seed of David and fulfilled all that was written about him in Moses, the Psalms and the Prophets. The deliverance, the salvation spoken of in Psalm 118 is found in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He is the Lord who saves. He is the one trusts in his Father for our behalf.
Gracious God and Father, so open our eyes that we may see Jesus as the Lord and so open our lips that we may sing the praises of his salvation for us and for all mankind. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.