PSALM 2: KISS

I have long loved Psalm 2. It’s Messianic, King David telling us about King Jesus, the one from whom the Messiah would come giving us a glimpse of the coming Messiah and His kingdom. The Psalm feels, to me, a bit masculine. You can feel the tension of the nations, the unmoved majesty of God and the humble confidence of the Son. The very nations that rage and plot against Him, that complain and attempt to break away will ultimately be the inheritance He receives from His Father. The battle brewing in verse 1 turns out to be no battle at all by the time we arrive at verse 8. The Psalm is prophetic and Messianic, it has great depth and eternal implications, but there is one word I want to write about today, one word that has stood out to me ever since I first heard this Psalm read.

In verse 12, the Psalmist is speaking to the kings and rulers of the nations. He’s advising the judges of the earth, he’s offering wisdom to those who are largely considered wise, giving a suggestion to those who are generally found giving the commands. He tells them to, “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry”. The last thing we expect in this military themed Psalm is a kiss. We are ready for a war, expecting an attack, convinced of an absolute victory and David writes, “Kiss the Son”. This isn’t the kiss of intimacy that Song of Solomon describes. It’s not the kiss of friendship turned to betrayal that Judas offered. It’s also not the kiss of worship and gratitude that the woman in Luke 7 applied to Jesus’ feet as she received His forgiveness. This is a “kiss” of homage, of submission, of surrender. The Hebrew word used in Psalm 2:12 is nashaq. According to Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon it can mean “To arrange, to put in order; to arm oneself; to kiss (to join mouth to mouth)”. There is an idea here of making an adjustment, of making things right, of putting things in their rightful order. David has shown that the kings are raging, that they believe the bonds of the Messiah to be restrictive rather than productive, His cords to be binding rather than freeing. The issue is that the way that seems right to men leads to destruction and freedom from the King actually leads to our ruin not our reign. David offers a solution, “Kiss the Son”. Submit to Him, yield to Him, put Him in the proper place of authority and take your proper place of service, relent to the goodness of being protected by His rod before you suffer the terror of having His rod break you into pieces. In my mind, “Kiss the Son” is a gentler way of saying what Jesus revealed in Matthew 21:44, “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken’ but on whom it falls, it will grind him to powder.”

Psalm 2 reveals the glory of Jesus the Messiah, the power of God the Father and the futility of the nations that rage and rumble against the King or His Kingdom. But does it have any personal application? I believe it does. We all have a king that sometimes loudly rages, and other times quietly complains against the Lordship of Jesus in our lives. That king is our hearts. Jeremiah tells us that “the heart is deceitful above all things”. We know from our own experience that our hearts are unreliable, easily influenced, fickle in their desires and if we are honest, pretty unreasonable in their demand to get their own way. Jesus said that our hearts control our words, determine our thoughts and lead to all our actions. Our hearts were never meant to be followed, so please stop giving and receiving the advice, “follow your heart”. Our hearts were meant to be trained, to be led, to be redeemed, to be submitted to the rightful King. Our hearts, when in submission are beautiful partners, but when leading the way, they become terrible taskmasters. So, today, I’m trying to follow David’s advice, and I’m calling my heart “Kiss the Son”. My vision is too short-sighted, my wants are too temporary, my fears are too faithless, and my understanding is just too limited to be depended upon. My heart needs to be more than informed by God’s Word, it needs to be transformed by it. Statements like “I thought”, “I had hoped” and “I feel” are just too “heartish” to be given leadership in my life, I’m trying to transition to the place where I only live from “It is written”, where the true King is given full leadership, homage and submission of my heart so that He can have complete rule in my life. Every king other than Jesus has a weakness. Herod the Great was insecure, Saul was a people-pleaser, Ahab was wicked, Solomon was indulgent, David gave in to his pride, Nebuchadnezzar was arrogant, Belshazzar was lazy and entitled; our hearts can often be any or even all these things. Let’s take the leadership away from the one that needs a leader, put our hearts in the hands of the One who is always good and trust that the way of the One who loves us will always be greater than the way of the one who only knows how to love itself.