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A King Like No Other — Page 3
This King has done great and mighty deeds and is worthy of our praise.
We see in this section that the disciples are throwing their coats on the donkey for Jesus to sit on, and the crowd is throwing their coats on the road. Matthew, Mark and John all say that they are also throwing palm branches on the ground. This was a sign in ancient near east culture to signify the coronation of a king. We see it with Jehu in II Kings 9:13, as well as in Jewish literature between the Old and New Testaments.
Not only that, but the crowd was crying out, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” This is a quote from Psalm 118. A couple things about Psalm 118. First of all, Psalm 118 was what we call Pilgrim Psalms, or Psalms of Ascent which the Jews would proclaim on their way up to Jerusalem. That is, these are psalms that all the people knew by heart and would call out and sing as they were going to Jerusalem for one of the three major yearly feasts which includes Passover. So the crowd would have had this Psalm on their mind. But not only did they have it on their mind, they were attributing it to Jesus.
What does this mean? If we looked at Psalm 118, we would see that it is a psalm sung or spoken during the return of a king to the temple after some sort of victory. It shows that the people were clearly of the belief that this was the promised King—the Messiah who would deliver them from their oppression. But He was so much greater than what they imagined.
We also see in verse 37 that the people were praising Jesus for the great and mighty things that He had done. Read that with me, “As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen.” What miracles had they seen? Well, the Gospels are filled with examples of miracles, but Luke 7:22 summarizes it, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the Gospel is preached to the poor.”
But specifically, we are told in John that the people were praising Jesus for His raising Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus, who was from the town of Bethany where Jesus and His disciples had been going through, had been declaring to the people what had happened. He was the evangelist Lazarus! Jesus is worthy to be praised for this miraculous deed.
But what about us? Do we praise Jesus for the miraculous deeds He has done in our lives? I have a friend who had a specific financial need, and in his mail box one morning was that specific amount. At church the next Sunday, he asked the pastor if he could share this with the congregation to declare the great deeds of the Lord. We are commanded in Psalm 9:11 to “declare among the peoples His deeds.”
But even more than the healings that we have witnessed and experienced, as we have trusted in Him, in His death we have been brought from death into life. How much more should we praise Him than this crowd who had not yet experienced this great salvation? We praise Him so weakly. But this king is worthy of all praise for what He has done and what He continues to do.
This King cannot be equaled.
This King is a King like no other
Ye chosen seed of Israel’s race
Ye ransomed from the Fall
Hail Him who saved you by His grace
And crown Him Lord of all
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