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.
Kiss the Son. Adore is derived from kissing with the mouth the hand (ad os, 'to the mouth') in token of homage. A kiss has always in the East been a mark of subjection and reverence. So Samuel, after having anointed Saul as king, kissed him (1 Samuel 10:1). It was used also in religious adoration (Job 31:27; 1 Kings 19:18; Hosea 13:2). [The Chaldaic or Aramaic bar (H1248) is used for ben (H1121) here, as in Proverbs 31:2, and often in Ezra and Daniel. It is a form retained from the primitive common stock from which both Hebrew and Chaldaic sprung; here used to avoid the inharmonious juxtaposition of ben (H1121), and pen (H6435). Since ben (H1121) is derived from baanah (H1129), to build, so bar (H1248) is from baara' (H1254), to create or beget. Ben (H1121) expresses the building up in the womb, or the building up of the father's house: and so is applied to Christ's conception as Man in the womb, or His Headship of the Church (Hebrews 3:3-4; Hebrews 3:6). Bar (H1248) expresses that Christ is the Only-begotten of the Father in respect to the Godhead.] The Messiah is in a sense special to Him alone "the Son." Others are so by creation and adoption; He alone by eternal generation.
Perish from the way - namely, from the right way; or 'as to the way; i:e., in the way that ye have entered on, the God-opposed way. Compare Psalms 1:6, "the way of the ungodly shall perish:" a confirmation of the connection that subsists between the first and second psalms.
But a little, х kimª`at (H4592)] - rather, 'in but a little time; 'shortly' (Hengstenberg). When He shall come, His wrath shall not be merely a little, but it shall be "the great day of His wrath" (Revelation 6:17).
Blessed ... - or, happy; as in Psalms 1:1; literally, 'Oh the happinesses of all,' etc. The grand conclusion drawn from the second psalm is the similar sentiment, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsels of the ungodly ... but whose delight is in the law of the Lord," as the introduction to the first; another confirmation of the close connection of the two psalms, the general statements in the first, as to the righteous and sinners, being repeated in the second, with special reference to Messiah, the King appointed by Yahweh.
Put their trust in him - in the divine though human KING: as opposed to trusting in earthly kings (Psalms 118:9; Psalms 146:3): and especially opposed to the confederate anti-Christian kings (Psalms 2:2; Psalms 2:6), whom the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet shall seduce with spirits of devils, "to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Revelation 16:4).