When my mother would get upset with my father she would always say, "Well, just kiss my foot!" In private, she may have said something else, but she was conscious that we were around and impressionable...and we must have been, because I remember this. What does it mean in verse 11...this kissing of the King? It was a sign of submission to the ancients. One approached the King and at once bent the knee and kissed either his hand or foot. It was a way of being heard by the ultimate ruler of the society - of being given access. If you did not reverence the king, forget being heard by him, because first you had to submit yourself to him and kiss him with your trembling lips.
God is holy. He "sits above the circle of the earth" He created and rules it with benevolence and justice. We are to serve Him with the reverence due One with all-power, all-knowledge, and Who is always present. To come into His presence flippantly, without understand that He is so BIG and we are so small is to insult Him. He is able to calm the seas and stir up the storms. Bow before Him and kiss His hand. Acknowledge that His power is awesome and His great mercy and grace undeserved and precious. Tremble for He is mighty. Tremble for He is sovereign. Tremble that He has chosen you to come into His presence at all. Tremble because He loves you. Kiss Him because you love Him.
Don't kiss Him because you have to. No one wants that kind of affection. Jesus was kissed perhaps in mockery of this very psalm. The Jewish men who followed Jesus would have known this psalm well. It is quoted several times in the New Testament and they would have understood that "kissing the Son" was meant to show homage to Messiah. He was supposed to be an earthly king. He was supposed to be political and set up a kingdom on earth and rule over the Jews. He came in a way they did not understand. He said He was the King of the Jews, but He didn't ACT like one. Jesus was humble..a healer and teacher..not the firebrand they wanted. He came to save them...eternally...but they wanted salvation in the moment, on earth, politically. Judas seemed to despise the weakness of the Man and His plan. He stole money from the ministry till and mocked Jesus for giving money to the poor. With the Sanhedrin, Judas conspired to kill Jesus. For what? For claiming to be Messiah. A blasphemy worthy of death. Jesus wanted to know...for which of my sins will you kill me? For healing the sick? For raising the dead? For opening up scripture to you as no one else ever has? For none of these. They killed Him because He did not fit the paradigm. He did not look like Messiah was supposed to. They killed Him because they could not "kiss the Son." Judas did. He kissed Him. It was a mockery. Don't kiss Him that way. His death and resurrection were the ultimate sacrifice of a God Who wants us to know how much He loves us. He bought us with His blood. Come before Him with trembling or do not come before Him at all, for to mock the crucifixion is to mock the God of ALL and that is a dangerous thing to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment