Matthew 21:9

‘And the crowds who went before him, and those who followed, cried, saying, “Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” '

And as they went on into the city the crowds yelled from all sides, and they cried ‘Hosanna to the Son of David', and ‘Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord', and ‘Hosanna in the Highest'. These are but three predominant examples of many things that would be shouted that day, for the excitement was at its height. It was an upgrading of the normal cries which greeted pilgrims (and which the Romans were perfectly used to) with the words ‘the Son of David'.

‘Hosanna' means ‘save now', and is taken from Psalms 118:25, but over the years its use had apparently been gradually changed so that it had become a kind of greeting to any who reminded them of the coming expected salvation. And as we have already seen ‘Son of David' was a title which had a dual significance, pointing on the one hand to the One Who was a healer like Solomon, the son of David, had been (as mentioned in Josephus. Compare also the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:22), and on the other to the Messiah of current expectation (Psalm of Solomon). It may also have gained in significance from the fact that many knew that He really was the Son of David (Matthew 1:1; Matthew 1:17). But their cries were cries of future expectancy rather than of present hope. Jesus was simply not revealing the demeanour expected of a Messianic claimant.

‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord' was a regular greeting to pilgrims, but possibly here gaining deeper significance from the fact that Jesus was a recognised prophet. They did not, however take the final step of realising His claim to Messiahship (Matthew 23:39). They thus spoke truer than they knew.

‘Hosanna in the Highest' was an expression of praise to the Most High God, and further indicates the significance of Hosanna as a praise word, although no doubt still containing within it a yearning hope that one day He would indeed deliver.