Hosanna: Prayer of the People
Psalms 118:25-26
By Harold D. Dinsmore, M.Div.
Ó2008 Harold D. Dinsmore 

I really enjoy celebrating significant religious holidays.  The church calendar year has many of them.  Some that other denominations utilize whereas we as Baptists observe but a few very biblically significant ones.

               When it comes to preparing a sermon for those particular Sundays it becomes increasingly difficult to keep from repeating oneself from year to year.  For this Palm Sunday I was led of the Lord to the book of Psalms.  The roots of the setting of Jesus entry into Jerusalem may be found there as well as the prophecy of this event as recorded in Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt the foal of a donkey.”

It is Hosanna that we seek to explain and identify its origin this morning.  Hosanna!  Catchy isn’t it?  But very rich in its meaning.  Originally Hosanna was an expression of prayer.  In fact, it really was a prayer of the people of Israel.  Its translation is the is the heart of our message today.  Save, now, we pray!  This can be better illustrated if you would turn to Psalms 118:25-26.  “O Lord, save us; O Lord, grant us success.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  From the house of the Lord we bless you.”  As you can see this prayer was constantly on the lips of the Jewish people.  They were constantly awaiting their new king who was heaven sent to lead them out of bondage into the freedom and prosperity they once enjoyed under their greatest king of all: King David.