Psalm 2

The nations rage. The rulers plot. They want to throw off God’s authority, cut the ropes and be free of the restraints. And God’s response, from heaven, is laughter.

It’s not cruel though. It’s the kind of laughter of someone who sees exactly how the story ends and finds the pretension almost absurd. The most powerful people in the world shaking their fists at the one who spoke the world into existence.

The psalm then shifts to the Son and talks about making the nations their inheritance and the ends of the earth their possession. The same nations raging in verse 1 are offered as a gift in verse 8.

What strikes us is the instruction at the end. Serve the Lord with fear and celebrate his rule with trembling. Kiss his son, or he will be angry. The response to the laughing God isn’t casual, but rather, is reverent. The laughter isn’t permission to be flippant. It’s an invitation to reorient.

The world raging against God looks powerful from inside it. From heaven it looks like chaff again.