Hosanna! Oh Save Me!

We all know the scriptures where Jesus is entering Jerusalem and people shout “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!"

The first time I heard the word hosanna I was just a little kid. Hose Anna? Who was Anna and why do we have to hose her down? Wait! When they say we need to get on fire do they mean real fire? Is that why we have to hose poor Anna down?

As I grew I understood there was no Anna in need of hosing. Hosanna was a word and it had an important meaning. I just didn’t understand it completely. Actually, until this morning, I always thought Hosanna meant “Blessed is the one”, or something like that.

Last night God laid it on my heart to study this word so I began my study first thing this morning.

Today I began by searching Wikipedia. 

They say “The word hosanna (Latin osanna, Greek ὡσαννά, hōsanná) is from Hebrew הושיעה־נא, הושיעה נא hôšâ‘-nā’ which is short for hôšî‘â-nā’ from Aramaic הושע נא meaning "save, rescue" (possibly "savior").”

Hmmm, interesting. 

I looked up hosanna in Strong’s concordance too (because, after all, one should not trust Wikipedia as the final authority on anything, right?). Strong’s listed all references to the word as tied to #5614 which defines the word “oh save!”. So Wikipedia was actually right this time. This isn’t just some shout for joy it’s a plea for help. I went back to Wikipedia and saw that they referenced Psalm 118:25 in their discussion. I opened up The Word and put my finger on the verse. It reads: “Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.” Sounds an awful lot like hosanna, but you know what . . .I kept reading and I found something interesting. Verse 26 reads: “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.”

Hey, now it sounds like those verses when He entered Jerusalem and people said Hosanna (Oh Save!). Blessed is the one (He) who comes in the name of the Lord.

I wasn’t through. I looked up the word in the dictionary. You know what I got? “—used as a cry of acclamation and adoration.”

It’s part of the picture but not the whole thing. If we look at hosanna as just a word for help we fall short of its meaning. If we see it as just adoration, then we miss something too.

Hosanna is both a cry for help and a blessing on the one who answers the need.  Read Psalms 18:6 and Psalm 40:1. (I’ll let you do that yourself). 

Now, let that sink in and (as it does), think about prayer.

How often do we cry for help (oh save me from this or that problem, rescue me from______ ) but we fail to bless him for who He is? Oh, let’s never skip this step again!  Let’s always remember He is our answer. He hears us cry hosanna, (oh Save me!), and He acts.  

The point: Always remember He is your Savior and bless Him for who He is.