Hosanna in the Highest

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 88, Hosanna in the Highest.

Listen to these words and let them land:

"Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" — Matthew 21:9.

I want you to hear something inside that word that we often miss. Hosanna. We treat it like a cheer — like a stadium crowd celebrating a win. But in its Hebrew root, it means "save now." It is praise and plea fused into a single breath. The crowd wasn't just celebrating; they were worshiping with their need wide open, lifting that need like an offering. And I find that to be one of the most honest postures before God that I know.

They didn't realize — not fully — that they were quoting Psalm 118. Words they had memorized since childhood, sung at every Passover. But on that road, the "Blessed One who comes" wasn't a distant promise anymore. He was right there. In flesh and bone. On a young donkey, coming down the Mount of Olives. Every word of that ancient psalm was finding its yes — and they almost missed it because they were expecting a different kind of king.

And He was coming. Coming in the name of the Lord. But not to take a throne by force, not to drive out the Romans with an army. He was coming to walk straight through that city and to the cross. That triumphal entry — the palm branches, the cloaks spread on the road, the shouting — it was already pointing toward the death that would pay for every single one of them. Glory and sacrifice don't contradict each other. They travel together.

Now, here's something I want to press in gently.

Some of those same voices crying Hosanna on Sunday — days later, in that same city — would be crying something else entirely. Not because they were villains. But because their praise was riding the mood of the crowd, not rooted in the conviction of their heart. When the atmosphere shifted, their voice shifted with it.

And I ask you today: where does your praise come from? From how you're feeling this morning — or from what you know to be true, even when you can't see it? Because there are weeks that arrive heavy. There are gates that are hard to walk through. And right at those thresholds, worship is not optional — it is the way through. Jesus entered the hardest week in all of history surrounded by praise. If He walked through that gate that way, so can we.

Praise that rises from conviction doesn't wait for circumstances to improve. It declares what is true even when it isn't visible. And that declaration — that act of trust spoken out loud — it opens gates.

So today, here is what I want you to do. Before breakfast. Before the day pulls you in, before your phone, before the news — say "Hosanna" out loud. Let that word come out of your mouth with its full weight. And with it, hand Jesus one specific situation that needs saving today. Not something vague or general. One thing. A name. A circumstance. A door that feels closed. Put it in His hands — praise and plea in a single word, just like the crowd on that road.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.