Psalms 2:12: “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.”

This is a very curious passage as we need to identify who the son or Son is. Christians automatically say it is a direct reference to Jesus. Jews, the people of the old Testament would disagree. The KJV capitalizes the word son which shows their bias. Thus, the KJV is telling us that we are to kiss Jesus lest He be angry with us and we perish in our way.

Obviously, the writer is not talking about a kiss between lovers to show sexual passion. He is most likely making a reference to the Oriental custom which dictates that you kiss a king’s hand to show respect or to show honor to a person. I am sure you have seen the movies where a French General pins a medal on a soldier and kisses him on both cheeks. They do that. So, is that what is being expressed here? Is this really speaking of Jesus or the Messiah and we are to show Him respect?  I will not question that.

Still, if this is to be a reference to Jesus or the Messiah the writer would have to be using a kiss in a figurative or metaphoric way as we cannot give a literal, physical kiss to Jesus. I think what we really need to do is examine this word kiss.

The word kiss in Hebrew is nashaq which means putting two mouths together. It also means to array oneself for battle. The meaning is uncertain but it appears to be an old Akkadian word used to bring men together to prepare them for war or battle.  It is sometimes used as a reference to training for battle as the word is used for touching. The soldiers would train in hand to hand combat which involved touching each other and would also prepare them for battle. It could be the writer is telling us that we are to come together with the son before doing battle and that we are to be in such close contact with the son that we may actually touch him. If we don’t He will be angry with us. As today, there was always a threat of a traitor or mole in the group whose loyalties laid with the enemy but if you joined together with the king in such a close union, there would be little chance of a treasonous act.

But then again the root word could also be nasa’q which means to kindle a fire or become passionate. If this were the case then the verse would be saying that we should Have passion for the Son. If the Son is indeed a reference for Jesus then this would make much more sense.  Only thing that bothers me is that He would be angry if we didn’t kiss him or join ourselves together with Him or show passion for Him.  That makes Jesus sound pretty insecure.

Lest examine this word son which is bar not ben. Curious that the Masorites made the word bar and not ben. Ben means son, but bar is an Aramaic word meaning discipline.   If this Psalm was written by David or during David’s time period, it would be very doubtful we are dealing with an Aramaic word.  This would only mean that this word bar does not come from the root word for son. It could but that would be stretching it.  There are three other possible roots that this word could come from.  It could come from  barar which means to make pure, ba’ar which means to explain or bara which means to create. Of course the major translators have declared the word means son and I would recommend you go with that. However, after studying out these three roots I reached a personal rendering and I am just sharing with you my personal view, nothing more. I will not buck tradition. However, I believe Scripture is large enough to carry more than one interpretation and the very nature of the ambiguity of the Hebrew language lends itself to multiple levels of meanings.  So let me just take you to another level of meaning.  By that I am saying the traditional meaning is not at all incorrect, but I am just sharing another level to consider a possible spiritual lesson.  With that in mind lets go with the root word being ba’ar which means to make pure. Thus, a literally rendering would be: “Make sure your passion is pure.”

Now we can look at this next phrase.  If our passions are not pure then there will be anger. Traditionally it is rendered as lest He be angry. But since we are no longer talking about a son but about purity we need to find another word other than lest. The word lest is a Pei Nun word and has a variety of meanings.  The words that are most commonly applied to Pei Nun is to turn away from. If our passions are pure we will turn away from anger.

Still, I have a real problem with the word anger as it comes from the word aneph. I discussed this word recently where I indicated that in its origins it comes from a camel who is snorting. A camel may snort for a multitude of reasons and thus this word can have multiple meanings. It does not have to be rendered as anger.  You need to consider the context in which is it used. Basically it means to show a strong emotion, anger, grief, frustration, desire, joy etc. The context suggests we use a negative emotion. So I would personally render this verse as: “Make your passions pure and turn away from strong negative emotions. I discussed purity in previous studies and showed that purity is approaching God without an agenda or ulterior motives. It is just coming to him with a heart full of love, asking nothing in return.  If you make that your passion and turn from strong negative emotions such as selfishness, anger, frustration over things not going your way etc., you will perish by the way. 

Perish sounds awful harsh. Actually, it is the word avid in Hebrew and means to lose something. I like that idea of losing something as it fits nicely with the following word derek” which means way. So rather than say lest you perish in the way I would say: lest you lose your way.

Which brings us to the last phrase: when his wrath is kindled but a little. This word kindled is ba’ar (with an ayin, not an aleph in the middle) and means to consume.   Hence I would render this as he will be consumed by just a little emotion.

My final literal rendering for this verse would be: “Make sure your passions are pure, turn from strong emotions, because you will lose your way. Even a little emotion such as anger will consume you.

In other words when you begin to turn away from the purity of your passions, that is seeking God with a pure heart and no personal agendas then your passion can easily be turned to frustrations, anger or some other strong emotion.  Just a little of that emotion will steer you away from God true purpose in your life. People always talk about finding purpose in their lives.  God created each of us with a purpose, but because we allow negative emotions to get in our way, we lose our way toward that purpose that God created us for.  If you want to find purpose in your life, be sure you give God a kiss or the alternative, be prepared for the purpose by joining in unity with Him.

Was this the writers intent?  Perhaps, perhaps not but it is a nice spiritual lesson.