“Let Him Kiss Me With The Kisses Of His Mouth!”

Song of Solomon 1:2

A kiss is one of the most tender expressions of affection and love known to man. It is universally understood. The very first thing a mother does with a newborn baby, as she holds it to her breast, is kiss it. The very last thing we do with a loved one who has left this world is to plant a farewell kiss on the face we shall never again see in this world.

Here we see a bride longing to be kissed, and kissed, and kissed by her beloved. The bride is the Church of God. Her Beloved is the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Glory. "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine."

I cannot imagine a more proper, suitable way to close out the year that is passed and to anticipate the beginning of the new than with this great, noble, ennobling desire burning in our souls. "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.”

I realize what an enormous desire this is. It is a privilege beyond comparison, to have to Lord Jesus Christ himself kiss us. In days of old, it was considered a high, high honor for a king to stretch out his hand and allow one of his subjects to kiss just his hand. Here, the Shulamite expresses a desire which would be utterly unthinkable. – She desired the king himself to kiss her, not only to kiss her, but to kiss her intimately, passionately, and repeatedly with the kisses of his mouth! She desired all the kisses he had to offer.

This desire would have been unthinkable, except for one thing. – She knew, she was fully convinced, that the king wanted to kiss her as much as she wanted to be kissed by him.

But there is much more here than a story of romance between a Shulamite woman and King Solomon. This is an expression of a soul in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, longing for him to come in sweet manifestations of himself and his love, with the kisses of his mouth. Notice just two things in this text.

THE REQUEST

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” How can the Lord Jesus kiss us? What are these kisses? Obviously, the kisses with which the Son of God kisses his people, the kisses by which he manifestly expresses his love o us, by which he assures us of his everlasting love for us, are the manifestations of himself to us.

We owe our salvation to the kisses of our Savior. In his great regenerating, converting mercy, as portrayed in the story of Hosea and Gomer (Hos. 1-3), the Son of God kissed us, made us live, and conquered our hearts. Our redemption by his precious blood is represented in Scripture as the kissing of mercy and truth and of righteousness and peace (Ps. 85:10). In the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15), we see the Lord God running to meet a sinner with the kiss of reconciliation!

Not only has our Savior kissed us, he commands us to kiss him (Psa. 2:11-12). What mercy! God the Son, the man Christ Jesus, the King of glory commands hell-bent, hell-deserving sinners to kiss him with the lips of faith and be saved (1 John 3:23).

Let this be our hearts’ desire as we anticipate the dawning of the new year. O blessed Savior graciously meet us often here, in your house, and kiss us again and again, reviving our souls and enabling us to kiss you with lips of repentance, faith, and love!

THE REASON FOR THIS REQUEST

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for thy love is better than wine.” The love of Christ, that love with which he loves us, that love which in its length is longer than eternity, in its breadth is broader than the earth, in its depth reaches the lowest of sinners, and in its height ascends to the very throne of God, is better than wine.

Wine is a temporary cordial for the body’s weakness. - Christ’s love is the everlasting cordial for our immortal souls. Wine may relieve worldly sorrows for a brief moment. - Christ’s love will cure all sorrows forever. Wine, if used too freely, will only add drunkenness to thirst. Christ’s love is such that those who drink the deepest draughts, those who are most intoxicated by it are most blessed and never injured.

The love of Christ is more than pleasant. It is always effectual. It raises sinners dead in trespasses and sins to eternal life. It raises us from the dunghill to the King’s chamber. It delivers us from all curse and condemnation. It makes us the sons of God. It infallibly saves us from the second death. It brings us to eternal glory.

"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.”

Don Fortner