Zechariah 9:9 Now Available feat. John Van Deusen

Apr 2

Zechariah 9:9 is now available on all streaming platforms!

THE VERSE

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Palm Sunday. The day in the Christian Calendar that kicks off what’s known as Holy Week and highlights Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem on a donkey just a few days before He was crucified. The writers of the gospels all recognized this event’s significance: we find it in all four accounts! But what does it mean? What’s the big deal? Both Matthew 21 and John 12 tell us that Jesus was fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy given in the 6th century B.C. in the book of Zechariah. It’s a framework to help us understand all the events that were to come over the course of the next week as Jesus laid down His life, suffered, was crucified, buried, and in turn raised from the dead. Let’s explore this short but powerful verse together:

Whatever the occasion, God’s people were told to rejoice and not just rejoice mildly or temperately, but rather to rejoice greatly… Go big in your celebration!

The Call

The prophet Zechariah begins this verse with a call to celebrate. He exhorts the daughter of Zion (generally a reference to either Jerusalem or the Jewish people) to rejoice greatly, and the daughter of Jerusalem to shout aloud! Whatever the occasion, God’s people were told to rejoice and not just rejoice mildly or temperately, but rather to rejoice greatly… Go big in your celebration! Open our mouths and let out a shout! What’s the cause of this raucous rejoicing and boisterous shouting?

The Cause

The verse tells us immediately after: a king was coming! For the average Jew at the time, the arrival of a king was not necessarily a good thing. You see, Israel had their fair share of awful rulers… Vicious foreign rulers and kings who came in to kill, oppress, exile, and destroy their city and temple. Coming kings didn’t have their good in mind. Simply a king coming into a city was not a cause for great rejoicing or shouting! However, this arriving king is different! We’re given 3 descriptions in Zechariah that fuel the rejoicing and shouting:

This king was righteous.
He had salvation with Him.
He was humble and mounted on a donkey.

This king described in Zechariah was not corrupt and shady like prior rulers but perfectly righteous and just; He came not with destruction but rather salvation; He was marked not by arrogance and conceit but humility and peace. On that Palm Sunday, Jesus was the king that came to Jerusalem fulfilling Zechariah 9:9!

He came not with destruction but rather salvation; He was marked not by arrogance and conceit but humility and peace.

The good news for the Jews at the time is good news for us in this moment as well: Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8)! He’s the king that marches into our cities and towns and families and stories with all the righteousness and salvation and humility He did then…

Where do you need this Jesus today? Invite Him in, and as you do rejoice greatly!

The Artist

John Van Deusen is a prolific singer songwriter who lives in Anacortes, WA with his family. He writes and releases solo music as John Van Deusen, but also with some friends in a band called Telephone Friends. You can find John Van Deusen at https://www.instagram.com/jvdmusic/ and Telephone Friends at https://www.instagram.com/telephone.friends/ .