“Let Him Kiss Me”

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. thy...: Heb. thy loves - Song of Solomon 1:2

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

    After reviewing our Savior’s words of tender, intimate love and affection for us (7:1-13), does your heart not again cry, “Let him kiss me”? 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 dying loved one is plant a farewell kiss on the face we shall never again see in this world. Here is 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. What a great, noble, ennobling, burning desire this is. —"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine."

    This is an enormous desire. It is a privilege, beyond comparison, to have the 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.

    The desire would be 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.

    The request

    Meditate on this heartfelt request. “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” Really, the text might be read, “O that he would kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!” She speaks as one who has experienced Christ’s love, as one who knew how sweet the kisses of his mouth are. She had tasted that the Lord is gracious. She had found grace in his lips, overflowing, abundant and sweet. She is, therefore, anxious and ardent in her request, venting her soul passionately before him.

    Though she does not call him by name, clearly, this is a request addressed to Christ himself, though spoken publicly before others. As John Gill put it, “She had him so much in her thoughts, her love was so fixed on him, she knew him so well, and had had so much converse with him, that she thought there was no need to mention his name; but that every one must very well know who she designed.” She speaks of him as if there were no one else in the world but him. Indeed, there is none other but him for our souls—“Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee” (Ps. 73:25).

    The kisses

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

    One of the most instructive and most delightful pictures of God’s great grace is that which is drawn by Luke’s pen of the prodigal son (Luke 15). The only time in the Bible God almighty is portrayed as being in a hurry is there. When his son was yet a great way off, the father saw him, jumped off his throne, ran to meet him, fell on his neck, and kissed him, and kissed him, and kissed him, and kissed him! What a great picture that is of our God welcoming poor sinners into his kingdom!

    Here, however, is one who has experienced that grace and love, one whose soul is wed to the Son of God, crying, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” These kisses are fresh manifestations and discoveries of our Savior’s love to us, by some precious word of promise from his mouth applied to us by his Spirit. As in the picture of the prodigal’s reception, we owe our salvation to the kisses of our Savior. In regeneration the Son of God kissed us with his grace and openly wed himself to us forever. He betrothed us unto him in righteousness, in judgment, in loving kindness, in tender mercies, and even in faithfulness, and caused us to know him (Hos. 2:19-20).

    He kissed us with the kiss of redemption, that great act of his love in which mercy and truth met together and righteousness and peace kissed each other (Ps. 85:10). He bought us to himself (Hos. 2:3; Tit. 2:14), distinctly and particularly bought us. When he called us by his grace, he declared, “I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, and thou art mine” (Isa. 43:1).

    With that came the kiss of reconciliation, by which our Savior wrapped us in his arms of mercy and declared in our very hearts that our sins are all put away and that we have been made the very righteousness of God in him, reconciled to God by his blood and reconciled to God by the power of his grace (Rom. 8:1-4).

    Not only has our Savior kissed us, he commands us to kiss him (Ps. 2:11-12); that is to put our trust in him. When he kisses us in grace, we kiss him in faith. The sinner loved, chosen, redeemed and called by the grace of God is kissed by Christ and is sweetly compelled by irresistible grace to kiss him. He espouses us; and we espouse him. He chooses us for his bride; and we choose him for our husband. He loves us; and “we love him because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

    The reason

    “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” That is our desire. Here is the reason for it. We have discovered that “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.

    Look yonder to Calvary’s cursed tree. Behold our crucified Substitute, and behold how he loved us! Oh, let our souls be ravished with his love! Have we tasted the love of Christ? Have we drunk this sweet wine? If so, we are constrained to cry out, “Stay me with flagons, for I am sick of love!” (Song 2:5). Let this now be the prayer of our hearts - “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for thy love is better than wine!”