Consider Psalm 2:12. “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.”
We’re surprised to find God’s Son cited in an Old Testament setting. Christians later recognize the Son to be Jesus of Nazareth, as in Acts 4:25-26. Jesus embraced this status—as eternally one with the Father by the Spirit. And his life, death, and resurrection affirmed his claims. It’s also heart based. A kiss expresses devotion—a heart’s delight—as when a man kisses his wife or a father his beloved son.
Yet earlier in Psalm 2:3 we read of a broad human rejection of the Son: “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” The context? The human denial of a bond shared between God the Father and his “Anointed”—the “Christ” or “Messiah.” This bond is expressed both in the bond-of-love of God within himself, and in God’s love for the creation. The latter refers to our being made by and for God in light of his relational image. It’s what the Father called for in Genesis one and what the Son, with the Spirit, accomplished. God himself is our relational Source. Bible themes of “family,” and “Bridegroom and bride” point to this love.
Yet many creatures—whose existence depends on this Triune aim—pretend to be able to wish it away. As if human denial can dismiss a divine reality. God who “is love” would never dismiss his original plan. He is, in fact, jealous after offering his Son to humans as their holy bridegroom.
The drama of sin starts here. God won’t force his love on others. Love is offered, not imposed.
So God invites a response—a mutual reciprocity—by offering humans his beloved Son. Even after the Fall, God still woos humanity to the Son. First by awakening humans to their death in sin; and then by resolving this death through Jesus dying on the cross. As the God-Man he is, Jesus was able to swallow death for those who turn to him.
He does this even after we were seduced by a demon who portrays death—separation from God and God’s life—into a seemingly real alternative. It was a premise that God can be either reshaped or denied. And not loved. A turn to “unbeing” since death is the opposite of life, and to what is good and true. It seeks individualism and status. It exists as narcissism that seeks either to earn or ignore God’s care. It turns life into lust; away from God’s goodness into fattening ambitions; and replaces giving to others with using others. Yet self-love is utterly empty: an illusory love for a mirror image. It misses the reality that God’s love is an eternally active reciprocity, between holy lovers. Where it is always more blessed to give than to receive.
The second Psalm says this much and more. It anticipates the coming of the Son. And warns us that history has an outcome: the Son’s wedding. And only those in the wedding party are welcome to the eternal glory Jesus prayed for in John 17:24. Everyone else will be left aside, to endure the emptiness of lifeless self-love. Forever. And it will be hell.
Thank God for both warning us and for inviting us. “Kiss the Son.”
Ron, I appreciate your meditation around Psalm 2. You have reminded us of things that apply in other contexts as well as in this one. The idea that we cannot wish away divine reality is huge, with many 21st century applications.
Another thought with big implications is that love is always offered, never imposed. He allows us to partner with Him in ministry and in life knowing full well that when we do, we will make messes that only He can clean up. It’s like us allowing children to “help” bake cookies. We don’t do it to make better cookies, but to make better children, and the children will make a mess only we can clean up. So God does with us.
I appreciate your thoughts, Scott. Despite the profound warning of the Psalm, and our sense that most people don’t care, we’re always assured of God’s mercy whenever souls respond.