Why Does God Laugh? Musings on Psalm 2

Psalm 2:4 states “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” In context it is very clear at what God is laughing. The peoples have imagined a vain thing. Their kings and rulers have taken counsel against the Lord and against His anointed. And God’s response to all of this is to laugh. It is clear from that, of course, that God does not feel threatened. He is no way intimated or alarmed by these tumults. As the prophet said, “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing” (Isaiah 40:15). But I think there is more to God’s laughter than just that. After Peter and John have been commanded not to teach in the name of Jesus and threatened they are let go and bring their report to the church. Upon which, “And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:24-28). And here is the nub of the joke. The kings rise up, the rulers take counsel together with the aim of breaking God’s bands, and casting away His cords from them. But what is the actual result? “For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.” The spectacle is one of people trying madly to rebel against God and yet fulfilling His purposes all along. This of course has implications: laughter is not God’s only response to this rebellion. But those are topics for another post. For now, it is enough, that we too can laugh with the one sitting in the heavens. We too can have the nations in derision. For all of the setting themselves against God they accomplish exactly what He pleased. Which seems to me like an adequate reason to laugh.