Kiss the Son

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.

Go back to the top of the psalm; that verse is a conclusion and makes no sense arriving alone.

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The scene is a summit. Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. Nobody at that table denies God exists. They are voting to be out from under him, which is a different motion and a far more common one.

Heaven's response is not an army. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. He answers with something already done. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Then the king speaks: Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

So by the time you reach the last verse the Son has been named for five verses, and that matters. Kiss the Son is one of the hardest phrases in the Hebrew Bible; the word for son here is not the ordinary Hebrew one, and the versions go different ways with it. Nothing in the argument rests on which is right, since verse seven settled the identification and every version has verse seven.

And the kiss is political rather than affectionate. When Samuel anoints Saul he pours the oil on his head and kisses him. It is what a subject does to a king, in public, where it can be seen.

What it asks of its kings is four verbs: be wise, be instructed, serve, rejoice. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Both at once, and neither cancelling the other.

Do what it asks of people with power, and you have some. Name one arrangement of your money or time or speech that you have quietly voted out from under him. Put it back today, out loud, with a witness if you can find one.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 55 is Comforted Thoughts (Psalm 94:19).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two