What does it mean to kiss the son (Psalm 2:12)?

(1) An EXHORTATION. "Kiss the Son. It is not the kiss of affection that is meant, but the kiss of allegiance It is the reverent acknowledgment of His title and claims. It is the moment when the heart exclaims, "My Lord and my God." Two different words are used for "Son" in this Psalm. In verse 7 we have "Ben "; in verse 12 "Bar." According to Gesenius, the one is the term of love, and the other the regal term. In other words, His relation to God as the object of His heart's delight; and His relation to men as the appointed universal Ruler to whom all must bow. Pride blocks men's path when Christ comes into view. We all like to receive homage, but we are not so ready to render it. Man's haughty mind cannot brook the thought of a superior. But God has made Jesus, whom men crucified, both Lord and Christ, and has decreed that to Him every knee must bow, and that every tongue must own Him Lord. The most stubborn heart that ever beat will be constrained to humble itself at the feet of the despised Jesus: those who bow in faith now receive salvation; those who do not bow until compelled to do so in another world will be lost eternally.

What then does the expression "Kiss the Son" mean? If you look it up in the concordance you will find it means this, 'Evidence your attachment to this Person, the Son'. Elsewhere in the days of Elijah the prophet, when he was bemoaning the fact that only he remained in faithfulness to the truth before Jehovah, Jehovah rebuked him and said to him, "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him" (1 Ki.19:18), that is, every mouth that has not given evidence of attachment to Baal, had not kissed him. The same expression in psalm 2 in regard to Jehovah's anointed, "Kiss the Son," means to give evidence of your attachment to the Son, "lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little".

Who are those who "put their trust in him"? It is the tremendous concourse of the godly remnant in Israel. The psalms speak of earthly blessing, they speak of the feelings of godly men, they speak of the feelings of the Messiah, they speak of the feelings of the heart of Jehovah, but we are connected with the same blessed Person, the same God, in regard to higher blessing even than Israel, ours it is to be blessed "with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ" (Eph.1:3). If Romans brings before us in its teaching that we have died with Christ in regard to our guilt and sin, and Colossians that we are risen with Him, then Ephesians moves a step further and tells us that we are not only raised up with Him, we are not only quickened, given to live with Him, but we are made to sit with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Think of it, dear brethren, the highest and richest blessings of the heart of God are open to you and to me through the infinite love that displayed itself in the death of Jesus on Calvary! So again, "blessed are all they that put their trust in him".

“Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,” is an eastern way of calling for universal subjection. To kiss the hand of a monarch is a well-known custom when a subject bows to his Sovereign. Philippians 2:10-11, tells us the day is coming when all shall bow. Psalm 2:12 urges the voluntary doing it, which submission brings blessing. “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him” (Ps. 2:12).

The hour of His public glory and of the overthrow of all human opposition and pretension is not yet arrived, so a word of admonition is given to the kings and judges of the earth and all others besides. There is still time to tender submission to the Lord and to serve Him. Then though trembling at the remembrance of His might, one may rejoice at the coming vindication and glory of the Son. If any would tender submission they must do so by honouring the Son. "Kiss the Son," is the word; that is, salute Him by way of submission to His authority, render Him the homage that is His due.

No one will do this except they trust in Him. Hence the note upon which the psalm ends. The word used here for "trust," is one which has the sense of "take refuge." Blessed are all they that take refuge in Him. Amazing fact! Before the hour strikes when He will deal in righteous judgment, making good His kingly authority, ruling as with a rod of iron even the remotest of the nations, poor sinful men may trustingly take refuge in Him. It reminds one of the saying attributed to Augustine that, "The only way to flee from God is to flee to God."

Blessed are all that have fled to Him. Do we not know it? If the blessedness was apparent in Old Testament days, how much more apparent to us who live in the light of the New Testament? Let us rejoice in the blessedness that is ours.

"Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth (v. 10). Now, while there is still opportunity for repentance, let the great men of the world consider the declared testimony of God to the fact that the Lord Jesus will certainly reign over all. If only men would "serve the Lord with fear," then they would also "rejoice with trembling," — rejoice because it is the Lord they trust; tremble because of having to give account to the God of heaven and earth.

"Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little" (v. 12). How foolish for people to say they believe in God, but not in the Lord Jesus! It is God who tells them to "kiss the Son." The kiss speaks of reconciliation: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor. 5:19). Thus, God does the reconciling by virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, but how many respond to this great kindness of God? To kiss the Son therefore is to respond positively to the urgent invitation of God through the Apostle Paul, "We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20). If so, "Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him."

Still, therefore, the warning word goes out to the kings of the earth: wisdom for them will be to submit themselves to Jehovah before the stroke comes that shall effectually humble them, — too late for blessing to them then! Well may those even who do this "rejoice with trembling" for the great peril to which they have been so near. Let them give the Son at last the homage-kiss of peace and reconciliation now when the slumbering wrath, slumbering so long, is just about to burst out in a blaze that shall sweep all that is exposed to it to destruction.

(4) There is given in the concluding stanza (Ps. 2:10-12) a general warning to kings and judges of the earth in respect to Jehovah and His Anointed, Whose authority they have despised (vers. 1-3). They are admonished to "serve Jehovah with fear," and to "kiss the Son, lest He be angry." To "kiss" is to do homage to the Son as the King of kings and Lord of lords; so Samuel kissed Saul when he was anointed king of Israel (1 Sam. 10:1); though himself a prophet he acknowledged the sovereignty conferred upon the son of Kish.

The golden altar is the symbol of priestly worship. There is no question here of pardon, of personal acceptance, or of sanctification. These important questions were all settled outside the house of God. Praise, thanksgiving, adoration, worship, ascend to God continually from the golden altar. Our prayers and our praises come up before God in all the sweet fragrance of the ascending incense. When the holy fire of God tested the sweet incense "beaten small," it found nothing there but the rich fragrance of the preciousness of Christ. But when the same fire tested Nadab and Abihu, alas! for poor fallen nature, no sweet incense was found there. "Our God is a consuming fire." "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." O reader, is thy peace made with God? If not, kiss the Son — be reconciled to the Son — be friends with the Son, before the testing time with the holy fires of God's justice come to thee. "Our God is a consuming fire." But when the holy fire of God's judgment tests the Son, all ascends as sweet incense. Nothing but perfection is found in the Man Christ Jesus. His Person, work, character and ways, all, all ascend to God as a sweet-smelling savour; and, oh! blessed be His name, the prayers and praises of the friends of the Son ascend and are accepted and shall be fragrant for ever in His sweetness.

The same Psalm 2 adds another valuable lesson for us in verses 10-12, "Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him." Though the psalm is prophetic of judgment in the last days, yet these verses are an admonition to kings and judges now (v. 10), at the time of the writing of the psalm. At that time they were told to, "Kiss the Son," which was long before He was "begotten" in Manhood. It is added also, "Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him" (v. 12). The psalmist surely wrote this to encourage people at the time to put their trust in the Son, which would be the way in which to "Kiss the Son."

The reader will judge how far Hebrew idiom convinced even Jerome. He would not force it all one way to avoid Jewish calumnies, and so has given it several; in his own notes, when he was free, "kiss the Son;" in the text, "adore purely." Jerome alone gives, "kiss the Son," in Latin, as also "adore purely." The Vulgate "learn discipline," following the LXX (as did the Italic or old Latin), was used in the christian world, save in the Syriac translation, which, as a kindred language, followed the Hebrew closely, and reads, "kiss the Son." The Hebrew is no doubt obscure. But that the Hebrew idiom obliges to read, "adore purely," is anything but just. De Wette, a first-rate Hebraist and extreme rationalist (though it seems, thank God, drawing yearly closer to Christ as he grew older, yet the freest of the free as to doctrine), in his otherwise very beautiful though somewhat affected translation, gives, "kiss the Son." Rosenmuller declares that nashak is never used by itself for "adore" or "venerate." Hengstenberg, a Corypheus against rationalists, translates it, "kiss the Son," and quotes Gesenius, Winer, and Hitzig for the same; Venema the same, referring to the sense of elect in Bar, and giving "elect son." In the main, Rosenmüller approves, quoting many others. He translates "give the kiss of veneration to so great a King." Symmachus gives "purely." I am not aware of others (Aquila, I suppose, electe). The Septuagint translation, which is also the Chaldee, is a kind of interpretation like Rosenmüller's, and gives the sense. Jews avoided the term "Son," and so Neologists. "Bar" is more Aramaean; but Gesenius admits Hebrew tends to Aramaean in poetry. Vaihinger gives "kiss the Son." Hupfeld has it like Jerome, admitting that Gesenius, De Wette, Hengstenberg, that is, the ablest modern Hebraists, and most moderns, admit this — the Son — to be right. So much for the insinuation of Hebrew idiom convincing Jerome; and, if Hebrew idiom, it should, of course, convince others; whereas all the ablest Hebraists translate it, "kiss the Son." I repeat, never trust the facts of Neologians.