Hosanna Sunday April 5,2020

This is The Day That The Lord Has Made-His ‘Hessed endures Forever!
Psalm 118
New Philadelphia Presbyterian Church
April 5,2020
Matt Creamer

Intro: Palm Sunday-The Story of the Day
Matt. 21:1-10; Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:29-40; John 12: John 12:12-19

Sermon Text
Psalm 118
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let Israel say, "His steadfast love endures forever." 3 Let the house of Aaron say, "His steadfast love endures forever." 4 Let those who fear the LORD say, "His steadfast love endures forever." 5 Out of my distress I called on the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me free. 6 The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? 7 The LORD is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. 8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. 9 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes. 10 All nations surrounded me; in the name of the LORD I cut them off! 11 They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side; in the name of the LORD I cut them off! 12 They surrounded me like bees; they went out like a fire among thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off! 13 I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the LORD helped me. 14 The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. 15 Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: "The right hand of the LORD does valiantly, 16 the right hand of the LORD exalts, the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!" 17 I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD. 18 The LORD has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. 20 This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. 21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. 22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 23 This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25 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. 27 The LORD is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar! 28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. 29 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

The Psalm in Context:

A Psalm of Thanksgiving; Part of the Egyptian Hallel (Ps. 113-118); Very Antiphonal alternating between 3rd person plural “WE” and 1st person singular “I”; A Processional Psalm of Thanksgiving for a particular special occasion such as the laying of the foundation of the 2nd Temple and or the dedication of the 2nd Temple (See Ezra 3:8-11), but then used for subsequent Passovers and other festivals/feasts.

Ezra 3:11 11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel." And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. (Ezr. 3:11 ESV)

I The Reason for Our Thanks/Worship-His “ ‘Hessed” endures Forever! V. 1-4

“The unconditional (contra-conditional), infinite, unending, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, love, faithfulness=grace of God which is inherent to His nature.”

Micah 7:18-20
18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.
19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. 20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.

II The Reason for Our Confidence-His “ ’Hessed” endures forever! V. 5-16

Psalm 57:1-3
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.
2 I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. 3 He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!

III The Reason for our Salvation-His “ ‘Hessed” endures Forever! V. 17-29

Lamentation 3:21-23
21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

The Sacrifice of “ ‘Hessed”
And when the sang this Psalm on Palm Sunday, they didn’t even realize that the sacrifice that they sang of was the One sitting on the donkey; the One they were crying out to for salvation as their king-the Son of David” first had to be the sacrifice for their sins-for their salvation.

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-- by grace you have been saved-- 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Intro: Palm Sunday-The Story of the Day

I absolutely love Palm Sunday! In fact, next to “next Sunday”, Resurrection Sunday, Palm Sunday is my favoritest Sundays of the year!

A lot of it has to do with my childhood, growing up in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. In my teenage years, I would often go into Jerusalem for the Palm Sunday celebration. I would get there late, after our own church service in Bethlehem, and so the celebration had already been going on for hours….but the celebration would still be going on full force.

It would start early that Sunday morning. Folks would start to gather at Bethany on the other side of the Mount of Olives, east towards Jericho from Jerusalem-Bethany, the place where the original procession started-the home of Lazarus and his sisters-Mary and Martha.

And they would start to gather. Christians from all over the world and every denomination that celebrated Palm Sunday on this particular Sunday. Americans, Europeans, Africans, Asians, Christian Arabs, Messianic Jews-a picture of the worship in heaven…all gathering to remember the Triumphal Entry of their Savior, Jesus, into the city of Jerusalem. And they would places clothing on the back of a donkey, and lead it to the front of the procession, and palm branches and other flowering branches in hand, they would start their singing, and dancing, and shouting, “Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna to the King. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” In every language you could imagine-singing and dancing with all their might. A celebration that would make most of us Presbyterians run for the hills! Going down the Mount of olives towards Jerusalem. Towards the eastern wall and the Temple Mount.

And it really was an accurate, live, technicolor, visual illustration of what happened that first Palm Sunday according to the narrative found in all four gospels. Borderline chaos! Great shouts of joy! Children and adults joining together in the joyful songs and shouts of joy-running around in the streets. You might even have a picture of it in your mind dating back to your own Sunday School days and when you used to process into the church, Palm branches in hand, singing some version of Hosanna. Do you remember the story?

After raising Lazarus from the dead, the crowds had gotten so large around Bethany-folks wanting to see Lazarus, and the prophet from Nazareth who had raised him from the dead- that Jesus took his disciples away-out in the wilderness on the other side of Jericho. But now, the time for Passover had come, and Jesus and his disciples joined the throngs of pilgrims “going up” to Jerusalem for Passover. And so, stopping by Jericho, they made their way the 3000 or so feet in elevation trek up from below sea level at the dead sea, through the Judean wilderness to Jerusalem.

When they got near Bethany-word got out that the One who raised Lazarus from the dead was back. And they started to gather in Bethany and Bethphage. Jesus, knowing what was about to happen sent 2 of his disciples on ahead telling them, “Go on ahead to the next village ahead of us, and there you will find a young donkey colt, who has never been ridden, tied and waiting. Untie it and bring him to me. And if anyone asks, Hey there, Wait a sec! What are y’all doing untying this donkey?! Just tell them that the Master-the Lord needs it”. And it all happened just as he told them. This had been foretold by the prophet Zachariah so it had to happen this way because it was the Lord’s plan.

And so, they brought the young donkey-colt to Jesus, and spread some of their coats on it and helped Jesus get on it’s back. And then, the party started! Children ran on ahead carrying flowering branches from the trees, and Palm branches that the pilgrims had brought up from Jericho to use as shelter and fuel, waving them and paving the street for the oncoming procession. And they began to sing-and the adults picked up on it and they all started singing and shouting with great joy. And they all knew the song. It was one of their favorites-Psalm 118. Give thanks to the Lord! He is Good! O Lord save us! Hosanna to the King! Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming King of Israel! They knew the words to the song. But didn’t really fully understand who this prophet, miracle worker, Messiah, Son of Man, Son of God really was. Many knew him as the one who had raise Lazarus from the dead. Some of them joined in for the party. Some of them thought maybe this was the rescuer who would get the Romans off their backs and finally be a true king for Israel. The Pharisees didn’t like any of this! They were angry that he had such a following! But they all knew the words to the song, they sang it at many of their special gatherings. And they kept singing it as Jesus on the young donkey-colt rode down the valley and up the hill to the gates of Jerusalem. But if they really had known the full meaning and context of the song they were singing, if they really believed in the goodness and steadfast love of the Lord who they claimed they were singing to, might their joy and celebration have lasted a little longer than a week? Because literally, less than a week later, many of these same worshipers were shouting “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Not understanding that what was happening was part of God’s plan-part of God’s goodness out of his love for them to truly save them and make them righteous.

We know the story. But would you like to learn more about the song they sang. A psalm that really gives us a context for what was happening. We know the story but would you like to learn, as Paul Harvey used to say, “The rest of the story?” Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 118.

The Psalm in Context

A Psalm of Thanksgiving. Psalm 118 is part of the Egyptian Hallel or Egyptian praises-these Psalms were collected over the History of God’s people to be used at the celebration of the Passover and other feasts where they remembered their great deliverance from Egypt. This one especially is a very antiphonal song meaning that groups or individuals and groups would sing the parallel lines back and forth to each other fore example “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good!” -- “For his steadfast love endures forever!” Or “Let Israel say,”  “His steadfast love endures forever!” And indeed it alternates between the first person plural “we” and the first person singular “I”, with the “I” maybe being the soloist or cantor and the “we being the crowd or choir. The individual singer recalling what the Lord has done and who he is for the individual and the crowd responding “Yes, Amen, that is what he has done for all of us.”

As with many of the Psalms it is impossible to pinpoint the exact moment of composition but it definitely is a processional song used of going up to the Temple Mount so possibly composed for the laying of the foundation of the second Temple after the exile or the dedication of the second Temple so in Ezra we read:

But as mentioned it came to be used especially during the Passover and Festival of Booths (Succoth).
Let’s take a closer look at the beautiful words of this amazing song:

I The Reason for our thanks/worship-He is good, His ‘Hessed endures for ever.
V. 1-4

The goodness of the Lord. That is what we cling to! That is why we worship Him! He is our Creator! Look around at this beautiful creation of his. The stars, the planets the vastness of the universe out there sing of a good God. The beauty of spring all around us-the warmth of the spring sunshine, the new fresh spring green grass and the smell of the blossoming trees-although some with allergies to pollen might not feel it is so beautiful! The faithfulness of the Lord to maintain his creation season after season day after day point to His goodness. His choosing us to be his people. To reveal himself to us through his word. His calling us to himself-He is good because he cannot be otherwise. And above all he is good for “His “Hessed” endures forever because it is who he is-part of his character that makes him God. This word “Hessed, you’re going to get tired of me talking about it, and if you are than you might as well go ahead and ask me to stop being your pastor now!

His steadfast love-his ‘Hessed. Which is the word that envelopes this entire Psalm se V 1 and 29. We simply do not have a single English word that mines the depths of the riches of this word used so many times in the OT and especially the Psalms to describe the “grace” of the Lord. From the Semitic root of the word to covet or to be jealous for He is so passionate for his people that he desires us-He delights in us. The best way to define it is to use a whole bunch of words often found in the surrounding context of the lines in which it is found: “The unconditional, (even contra-conditional), infinite, unending, unfailing, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, love, faithfulness….grace of God which is inherent to his character and so in Micah we read:

And secondly we see the Psalm tells us the reason for our confidence “His ‘Hessed endures forever!”

II The reason for our Confidence-His ‘Hessed endures forever.
V. 5-13

4 Let those who fear the LORD say, "His steadfast love endures forever."
5 Out of my distress I called on the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me free. 6 The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? 7 The LORD is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. 8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. 9 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes. 10 All nations surrounded me; in the name of the LORD I cut them off! 11 They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side; in the name of the LORD I cut them off! 12 They surrounded me like bees; they went out like a fire among thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off! 13 I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the LORD helped me.

In crazy times like these when it is easy to get caught up in the distress, fear, and seeming chaos of what is going on. At time it seems like the evil which is our enemy is winning the battle. At times it seems as though our enemies real or silent and invisible are swarming us under. In times of great tragedy, global, national or personal, all we can cling to is His goodness-His steadfast ‘Hessed love. Don’t make light of difficult situations. Don’t try to figure out the “why” of suffering, and for God’s goodness sake don’t just put on a happy smiley face or encourage others to do so! Especially those who are going through it in the moment. Simply cling to, in the midst of your tears and confusion and real pain-He is good, and recall his faithfulness to his people and to us. He will rescue, he will heal, he will redeem. He cries with and for us because he understands that we are weak and so small. “Jesus ‘Hesseds me this I know for the Bible tells me so. He will catch us when we fall. He will hold us with his strong arm and in his strong arms and dry our tears. In times when it feels there is no hope and when it is so easy to give in to despair we can have a strong confidence in Him for is ‘Hessed endures forever!

III The reason for our Salvation-His ‘Hessed endures forever.
V. 14-29

14 The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
15 Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: "The right hand of the LORD does valiantly, 16 the right hand of the LORD exalts, the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!" 17 I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD. 18 The LORD has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. 20 This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. 21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. 22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 23 This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25 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. 27 The LORD is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar! 28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. 29 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! There are times in the Psalms when the word salvation does mean a rescue or kind of a military salvation for God’s people or God’s King over their enemies. But there are also times when more eternal salvation is close by in the text. I shall not die but live….He has not given me over to death. Open for me the gates of righteousness…this is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous enter. Why are they righteous? Who are these righteous? Who falls in this category? Why are we righteous? Because the Lord has made atonement for us by sacrifice. He has removed the guilt of our sin as in Psalm 32. We are righteous in his sight because he has offered substitution for us and counts us as righteous-sees only Jesus in us.

Psalm 25:5-11
5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.
6 Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. 7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD! 8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. 9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. 10 All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. 11 For your name's sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great. Lamentation 3:21-23
21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Save us we pray O Lord! Hoshia3na! Hoshia3na-do you see now where we get the word Hosanna? And in deed the word has become so linked to “Palm Sunday” that the word for Palm branches in Arabic is Sha3neen. O Lord save us!
But what is or should I say Who is this “festal sacrifice.” What sacrifice of the ‘Hessed of the Lord saves us and makes us righteous?
The One who came in the name of the Lord.

When they sang this Psalm on Palm Sunday, they didn’t even realize that the sacrifice that they sang of was the One sitting on the donkey; the One they were crying out to for salvation as their king-the Son of David” first had to be the sacrifice for their sins-for their salvation. And later on that week He would be. Because of God’s ‘Hessed-his grace Jesus went to the cross not because the Roman soldiers led him there but to be the substitute for our sins, theirs, yours, mine. He is the answer to our cry our prayer Hoshia3nna Hosanna, O Lord save us!
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-- by grace you have been saved-- 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

So What? Have you appropriated Jesus’s sacrifice for you by faith? Accept his grace!