Kiss the Son–A Command for Valentine’s Day

“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”—Psalm 2:12

The Bible calls Jesus or God the Son and tells us to kiss Him so that He may not become angry. It’s a very interesting picture, as in our minds two images are painted. A bride kissing her groom at the wedding feast. The young men toasting and the young women dancing.

At least for me, I also get the stranger picture of someone trying to kiss the sun “S-U-N.” And of course I know that if someone did this, first their lips would not be long enough to actually reach the sun, and second, if they were, their lips (and all the rest of them) would get burned.

But in this verse we see that the Son does not burn us when we kiss him but when we neglect to kiss him.

It brings up the question of what kissing actually is—or what it is a metaphor for more specifically.

It seems to be an image for worship, which would make sense and would mean that this is talking about our worship to God. But what is the relationship between kissing and worship. It is Valentine’s Day, and even if it were not, our minds tend to jump immediately to the idea of lovers or newly weds out in the starlight.

But in other cultures, people kiss as a greeting. Paul, in fact, commands us to “Greet one another with a holy kiss” 1 Corinthians 13:12.

Is this the kind of kissing the Bible is talking about here. Or is it, perhaps, the kind of kissing we find in 1 Samuel 20:41:

“And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times. And they [David and Jonathon] kissed one another and wept with one another, David weeping the most.”

Or perhaps in Genesis 27:26:

“Then his father Isaac said to him [Joseph], ‘Come near and kiss me, my son.”

I personally believe that it is not necessary, or necessarily even helpful, to define what kind of kissing this Scripture is commanding. What we do know is that kissing is very prevalent in the Bible—it’s happening everywhere. We also know that all of those images I just mentioned are images God uses for his relationship with us (except for the image of the sun.)

He calls the church his bride. He calls himself our brother [and from extension friend] like David and Jonathon. He also is known as The Father or Our Father, mirroring Israel’s relationship to Joseph. The church (to which Paul wrote to ‘greet one another with a holy kiss.’) is an image of God—the body of Christ.

But there are two interesting things to note here:

First, kissing (here) is not used as an image of God’s love for us—but of the kind of love He wants us to have for Him.

And second, this verse is specifically talking about the Son.

In other words this is almost a restatement of Deuteronomy 6:5:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

It’s saying here love the Lord your God with all your emotion. The same feelings you have for your girlfriend/boyfriend. The same emotions you feel when being reunited with your father or when being separated from your best friend (basically your soul mate.) Have those same emotions for Me. I require it. Don’t let Christianity be boring—because you love Me with all of you.

But why the Son, as appose to the Father or the Holy Spirit?

Obviously, this verse isn’t saying that we should have a more intimate relationship with one person of the trinity as appose to another.

But yet it specifically references the Son. In fact all of Psalm 2 is setting up the relationship between Son, Father, and the people.

The verse just prior to this one seems to be talking about the Father. It reads, “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.”—Psalm 2:11

This verse (verse 12) would then be saying, as you worship God so worship the Son of God—because He Himself is God.

That’s something the Israelites found hard to get. (They crucified Jesus.) And that’s something we, even as Christians, find hard as well. Next week I’m going to discuss some of the pitfalls we can fall into with regards to our relationship with Jesus, but for now, let me know what you think. And kiss the Son.

Blessings,
Jason