Hosanna to Hallelujah - Part 1
Psalm 116:1-7
The Cry
Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem on a young colt. It must have been quite the event in those days. As Jesus rode people would place their cloaks in front of Him. People also placed palm branches along the way. Thus we have what is traditionally called Palm Sunday.
I am not sure if everyone knew what was going on but like many a crowd one group of people started to shout and not wanting to be left out others joined in with them. Some estimate between one 1000,000 to 2000,000 people lined the streets. Those that followed behind were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! “Hosanna in the highest!”
Hosanna in Hebrew means Save! It doesn’t make much sense to put save in the sentence instead of hosanna. We need to understand that the people understood that it was a word of praise. The people recognized that salvation was from the Lord only. It was to come from the Messiah. This was their expression that the Messiah, salvation, had come as foretold.
I would like us to look at another person who calls out "hosanna", and discovers it turns into "hallelujah!" He is the psalmist, David, in Psalms 116.
The psalmist replies in much the same way.
I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.
He loves the Lord. He loves the Lord based on the Lords hearing him. Essentially he begins the psalm by praising God in much the same way the crowds were hailing Jesus with hosanna.
He loves God because He heard his cry for mercy and therefore he will cry out to Him evermore. The psalmist then begins to tell us the reason behind his love and the cry for mercy.
The Why
The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow. Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, save me!”
Hosanna makes perfect sense in this verse. The psalmist is calling out to God to save him from impending doom. The situation was dire and he needed help. Where did he turn, to the Lord.
What is it that causes us to cry out Hosanna, "Save Me"! The psalmist sums it up.
The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.
The "cords of death" comes from the Hebrew plural word "meetsar". It speaks of the "pains of Hades". The condition the writer describes is one of great physical pain, the pains of hell. I spent one night in a cancer ward. The screams of pain and crying out were so loud and constant that they brought to mind the screams from hell.
The "anguish of the grave" seems to refer to the tugging and pulling of death on his life. The psalmist may have even been talking about the march to death we all experience as we walk this earth. I spent one night in a cancer ward. The screams of pain and crying out were so loud and constant that they brought to mind the screams from hell.
Trouble and sorrow overcomes him. For David it would have referred to his flight from Saul. Living in caves, wondering about his next meal, wondering if God’s promise and anointing would ever come to pass, or would Saul’s spear pierce his heart before it came to pass.
Illustration
Some years ago a book was written by a noted American historian entitled "When The Cheering Stopped." It was the story of President Woodrow Wilson and the events leading up to and following WWI. When that war was over Wilson was an international hero. There was a great spirit of optimism abroad, and people actually believed that the last war had been fought and the world had been made safe for democracy.
On his first visit to Paris after the war Wilson was greeted by cheering mobs. He was actually more popular than their own heroes. The same thing was true in England and Italy.
In a Vienna hospital a Red Cross worker had to tell the children that there would be no Christmas presents because of the war and the hard times. The children didn’t believe her. They said that President Wilson was coming and they knew that everything would be all right.
The cheering lasted about a year. Then it gradually began to stop. It turned out that the political leaders in Europe were more concerned with their own agendas than they were a lasting peace.
At home, Woodrow Wilson ran into opposition in the United States Senate and his League of Nations was not ratified. Under the strain of it all the President’s health began to break. In the next election his party was defeated.
So it was that Woodrow Wilson, a man who barely a year or two earlier had been heralded as the new world Messiah, came to the end of his days a broken and defeated man.
Have you ever had such experiences? A "dark night of the soul" as one early christian writer put it has probably come upon each of us in this room. The trials of living in a fallen sinful world are many in kind and most will experience the tug of death at some point.
The Supply
So what do we do? We cry out Hosanna Lord. Save me Lord!
Illustration
The Ladies Home Journal asked in 1981, "In whom do you trust?" Responses were: Walter Cronkite 40% of the vote: Pope John Paul 26%: Billy Graham 6%: God 3%
The psalmist knew who salvation would come from, the Lord. Who is this God that we sing to and talk about each Sunday, and why Him?
First, the Lord listens to us. Verse 1
I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.
Illustration
Tim Dearborn shares one time his talking to God got him a strange look. When I first became a Christian, I had the habit of talking out loud with the Lord anywhere and everywhere – in the car, on walks and in school hallways. Perhaps the most memorable dialogue occurred one day in a public restroom. Seeing no legs under any of the stalls, I launched into a free-flowing conversation. Not too long after, I heard a toilet flush. As a man left his stall, he apparently expected to see more than one other person in the room. Realizing that no one else was he stared at Tim with a strange look all the way out tne door.
Second, The Lord is gracious or "gives us grace". Verse 5
The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. The LORD protects the simple-hearted; when I was in great need, he saved me. Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.
The Lord is full of grace and because of His grace he treats us righteously. His righteousness is tempered with His compassion and mercy. It is available to all who call to Him in repentance and faith. He also provides protection and provision to those who call on Him as a child who calls on his parent.
Next, the Lord delivers us.
For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
Whatever the psalmist had as a problem or situation, it must have been severe. The Lord delivered him from death, sorrow, and failing in faith. Whether this was one occurrence or many doesn’t matter. What matters it that the Lord delivered him from all of it.
For what purpose is this deliverance? I may walk in the land of the living.
Illustration
An old lady found herself hungry with no food, no money and nobody to care for her. So she fell down on her knees and cried out to God, “O Lord, please send me a piece of ham and some collard greens.” All day long she prayed “O Lord, please send me a piece of ham and some collard greens.”
The town atheist heard her prayer and decided to mock her and God. So he bought a ham and some collard greens and dropped the food down her chimney. The food landed right in front of the hungry old woman as she knelt in prayer. She immediately jumped up and began thanking God saying “O Lord, I thank you for answering my prayer!”
The atheist hearing her gratitude grew upset, jumped off the roof, knocked on her door and said “Your God didn’t give you that food; I dropped it down the chimney!”
The old woman simply said “I don’t know how my blessing got here; all I know is God sent it!”
Lastly, He gives us peace and rest.
Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you. v. 7
The psalmist has trusted and cried out to the Lord. He believes that the Lord will deliver him once again from the clutches of death. He can rest, be at peace, be absent from worry, because the Lord is the Lord. The peace from trusting God washes over his soul to the point there is rest from the grip of death, afflictions and woe. How much do we need that mindset or heart set today?
So what did the psalmist do and what should we do?
I believed; therefore I said, “I am greatly afflicted.” And in my dismay I said, “All men are liars.”
I believe. Even though I am greatly afflicted and in great distress my hope is in the Lord. Dismay would be better translated in my afflictions. He was telling us that in his afflictions he trusted in the Lord and cried out to Him and as the first verse says He heard my cries therefore his faith will always be in the Lord.
He also proclaimed to those who would listen. Like Job listening to his "friends" telling him his afflictions were a result of God’s disfavor the psalmist is telling us it’s not true. They may have said to him, "God is dead", the Lord is not listening", or any number of false beliefs about the Lord.
Lastly, he chose where he could always cry out for help and salvation.
Illustration
Dr. Seamands tells of a Muslim who became a Christian in Africa. "Some of his friends asked him, ’Why have you become a Christian?’ He answered, ’Well, it’s like this. Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the road forked in two directions, and you didn’t know which way to go, and there at the fork in the road were two men, one dead and one alive--which one would you ask which way to go?’"
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Jesus called it the wide and narrow road. The wide road leads to destruction, narrow leads to life. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the light, no one comes to the faith but through me". Which road are you on today?
