GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 2:10-12
10 Therefore, you kings, do what is wise.
Accept discipline, you rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry
and you be destroyed in your way,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
This Psalm ends with words of warning for rulers. First, they must act wisely. The role of government is to act for the good of the nation, to protect them, provide for them, administer justice, keep the peace, and be concerned for public health and welfare.
Next, they must accept discipline. Many translations have “be warned” here, but the simple verb is the passive of “to discipline,” and “accept / receive discipline” seems to be the better translation here (cp. the Greek Septuagint as well). The word for “rulers” in verse 10 is the same as the title of the Judges in the Old Testament.
Next, the rulers of the world are commanded to serve the Lord with fear, and to rejoice with trembling. Few rulers do this, and still fewer governments or nations. It is not unlawful for Christians to hold public offices, or even to serve as nobility in countries where this is the tradition. Our confession summarizes the Scriptures this way: “lawful civil ordinances are good works of God, and it is right for Christians to bear civil office, to sit as judges, to judge matters by the Imperial and other existing laws, to award just punishments, to engage in just wars, to serve as soldiers, to make legal contracts, to hold property, to make an oath when required by the magistrates, to marry a wife, to be given in marriage” (Augsburg Confession). However, while secular authorities are correct and duty-bound to encourage righteous living, they must not expect that they will force unbelieving countrymen to become Christians simply by forcing them to act more Christian. And we must not imagine that forcing a country to appear more Christian in its actions is pleasing to God. God looks at the heart, not at the deeds of unbelievers. Salvation is not achieved by works of any kind, but, by the grace of God, through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9). Therefore a Christian ruler will sometimes be forced to do something in his work that would seem to offend his Christian conscience, but he may, with the blessing of the prophet, “bend the knee in the temple of Rimmon” as Naaman the Syrian was required to do, and yet be at peace with the Lord (2 Kings 5:18).
Therefore, what does David mean when he says, “Kiss the Son”? It is of course no kiss of passion, nor the kiss of a parent or a brother, nor is it even a kiss on the hand (to pay respect) nor the foot (to show extreme humility), although these last come closer to David’s point. No, this is the total embrace of faith combined with the subservience of the other explanations. But in commanding all to embrace the Son, the Holy Spirit also shows that anyone who thinks they have faith in God but then reject the Son of God truly have no faith at all. “This is my beloved Son,” the Father says, “listen to him” (Matthew 17:5). “You believe in God,” Jesus says, “believe also in me” (John 14:1). And again, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me” (John 7:16). And, “What I speak, the Father speaks” (John 12:49). “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I, too, am working” (John 5:17). So the Father and the Son are one (John 10:30), and no one can worship the Father without also worshiping the Son.
The faith that grasps this is a gift from the Holy Spirit. He sets this faith in our hearts when we are baptized and he strengthens it and braces it from every side with preaching and the Lord’s Supper. This is how the Lord himself touches each trouble in our lives. He helps us to lift them up and bear them on our shoulders. We walk this life because he helps us along, step by step, defeating the devil’s traps, big and small, that lie all along the way, and his loving hands are always ready to help (Psalm 119:173). Christ the Son of God is our refuge, and we are blessed in him.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Psalm 2:10-12 Kiss the Son