Worship Devotional CXVII

Apr 9

Originally posted to the Facebook group on 4/9/2022.

Behold The Son Who Suffered To Save Us

Worship Devotional for 4/10/22

~ Palm Sunday / Good Friday ~

Zechariah 9:9:

"Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem! Look, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

When Jesus rode into Bethlehem on Palm Sunday in fulfillment of this prophecy, a great crowd of His disciples rejoiced and praised Him, shouting, "Hosanna!" in reference to Psalm 118. They praised Him at His arrival, and they believed He was the Messiah, yet they still did not understand the real work that God was doing. They were focused on worldly, political desires and on their own ideas and expectations of what the Messiah would do and what He would be like. They thought He had come to overthrow the Roman government and to restore the physical kingdom to Israel. They thought He had come to lead armies and to take back the earthly rulership by physical force as their conquering, victorious King. In truth, Jesus had come to conquer His enemies and to set the people free and to establish a kingdom — but not in the limited way the Jews expected. When we focus on worldly affairs like politics, material gain, or physical accomplishments, we open ourselves up to the deception of the enemy, who often uses such temporary things to distract us from what is true and from living our lives for what truly matters and is eternal. We must learn from the events of Palm Sunday and surrender our expectations to God, who is working in ways that we don't always understand, or that are perhaps entirely beyond our comprehension, since His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (see Is. 55:8-11). Rejoice in the coming of our Lord, for He will return! Rejoice and praise God for the good things to come according to His wonderful promises, and expect revival and renewal and salvation. But don't allow your own ideas or desires of these things to get in the way of true understanding and faith, for these things are not likely to come just as you think they will. The Jews expected victory and revival, which God had promised and was bringing, but they didn't understand that Good Friday was to follow, where Jesus — the One they thought was their Messiah and King — would suffer and die by crucifixion on a criminal's cross, though He had done no wrong. As we remember Palm Sunday and Good Friday this week, may we bring our ideas and opinions and worldviews before God in humility, with surrendered hearts and minds, so that His Spirit may sanctify our hearts and renew our minds, that we might worship Him in spirit and truth, according to what He has spoken, rather than according to our faulty ideas of how things should be. And may we give thanks to God with all our hearts and all our whole being, for He has given us a greater salvation than we could ever have imagined through His suffering and death on the cross for our sins, so that we now stand forgiven and accepted in the presence of the living God.

Psalm 118:

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever. Let Israel say, 'His faithful love endures forever.' Let the house of Aaron say, 'His faithful love endures forever.' Let those who fear the Lord say, 'His faithful love endures forever.'
I called to the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me and put me in a spacious place. The Lord is for me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The Lord is my helper; therefore, I will look in triumph on those who hate me.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in nobles.
All the nations surrounded me; in the name of Yahweh I destroyed them. They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me; in the name of Yahweh I destroyed them. They surrounded me like bees; they were extinguished like a fire among thorns; in the name of Yahweh I destroyed them. You pushed me hard to make me fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.
There are shouts of joy and victory in the tents of the righteous: 'The Lord's right hand performs valiantly! The Lord's right hand is raised. The Lord's right hand performs valiantly!' I will not die, but I will live and proclaim what the Lord has done. The Lord disciplined me severely but did not give me over to death.
Open the gates of righteousness for me; I will enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous will enter through it. I will give thanks to You because You have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This came from the Lord; it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Lord, save us! Lord, please grant us success! He who comes in the name of the Lord is blessed. From the house of the Lord we bless you. The Lord is God and has given us light. Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give You thanks. You are my God; I will exalt You. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever."

Isaiah 52:13-53:12:

"See, My Servant will act wisely; He will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were appalled at Him — His appearance was so disfigured that He did not look like a man, and His form did not resemble a human being — so He will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of Him, for they will see what had not been told them, and they will understand what they had not heard.
Who has believed what we have heard? And who has the arm of the Lord been revealed to? He grew up before Him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn't have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at Him, no appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; He was despised, and we didn't value Him.
Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains; but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds. We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished Him for the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, He did not open His mouth. He was taken away because of oppression and judgment; and who considered His fate? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was struck because of my people's rebellion. They made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man at His death, although He had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully.
Yet the Lord was pleased to crush Him severely. When You make Him a restitution offering, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and by His hand, the Lord's pleasure will be accomplished. He will see it out of His anguish, and He will be satisfied with His knowledge. My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will carry their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him the many as a portion, and He will receive the mighty as spoil, because He submitted Himself to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet He bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels."

Hebrews 9:11-28:

"But the Messiah has appeared, high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), He entered the most holy place once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve the living God?
Therefore, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. Where a will exists, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will is valid only when people die, since it is never in force while the one who made it is living. That is why even the first covenant was inaugurated with blood. For when every command had been proclaimed by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll itself and all the people, saying, 'This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for you.' In the same way, he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the articles of worship with blood. According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves to be purified with better sacrifices than these. For the Messiah did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that he might now appear in the presence of God for us. He did not do this to offer Himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. Otherwise, He would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And just as it is appointed for people to die once — and after this, judgment — so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him."

Songs: