My New Favorite Word Is...

HOSANNA!! I've heard that word many times in my life but until recently I never knew what it meant (thanks to Jason and Bob for enlightening me). I looked it up in Strong's Concordance, just to double check my sources, and found that Hosanna is a Greek word, a cry, an interjection (remember your School House Rock song?), meaning "save, I pray," or "save us." The root words are Hebrew terms meaning "save us" or "deliver us" and "now, I beseech, I pray." I think this is so cool!

HOSANNA!! Has become the cry of my heart lately as I talk to friends who are struggling with life and God's goodness. Andrew Peterson wrote a song about it, wanna hear it? It goes like this:

HOSANNA

"I am tangled up in contradiction. I am strangled by my own two hands. I am hunted by the hounds of addiction. Hosanna! I have lied to everyone who trusts me. I have tried to fall when I could stand. I have only loved the ones who loved me. Hosanna! O Hosanna! See the long awaited king come to set his people free. We cry O Hosanna! Come to tear the temple down. Raise it up on holy ground. Hosanna!

I have struggled to remove this raiment, tried to hide every shimmering strand. I contend with these ghosts and these hosts of bright angels. Hosanna! I have cursed the man that you have
made me. I have nursed the beast that bays for my blood. Oh, I have run from the one who would save me. Save me, Hosanna! O Hosanna! See the long awaited king, come to set his people free. We cry O Hosanna! Come and tear the temple down. Raise it up on holy ground Hosanna! We cry for blood, and we take your life. Hosanna! We cry for blood, and we take your life. It is blood, it is life that you have given.

You have crushed beneath your heel the vile serpent. You have carried to the grave the black stain. You have torn apart the temple's holy curtain. You have beaten Death at Death's own game. Hosanna! O Hosanna! Hail the long awaited king, come to set his people free. We cry O Hosanna! Won't you tear this temple down, raise it up on holy ground. O Hosanna! I will lift my voice and sing: you have come and washed me clean. Hosanna."

One other thing struck me as I studied this word. When you read Matthew 21:9, 15, Mark 11:9-10, and John 12:13, it seems that, while the people are crying out to Jesus for salvation, to be delivered, they are doing so with hearts of praise. I think this is worth pondering.