And God Laughs

Why do the nations conspire
    and the peoples plot in vain? (Psalm 2:1)

As I watch the news unfold each day it is easy to conclude that the world has gone mad. It is difficult to know who is an ally with whom and who is an enemy. Historic alliances crumble. Who is friend and who is foe is difficult to discern from month to month. And, in the worst of all developments, ‘truth’ has become a matter of personal opinion, not fact.  Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” is one we still ask.  It is enough to cause me to despair of whether peace can ever be known again in our land, much less in our world.  How then, in the midst of all that we witness, can we find any hope?

I find hope in the words of the most ancient of songs, where the Spirit tells us that the nations and the peoples ‘plot in vain’. They are not in control of my destiny. They cannot stop the march of hope through history. We who believe in God have no need to fear the futile fantasies of the nations, for they are mere minions.  Or, as Artur Wieser compares the nations leaders to God:

“A race of pigmies is face to face with a giant!...It is only when we know the overwhelming power of God…that we achieve that inward superiority, fearlessness and serene confidence which is so graphically expressed in the magnificent picture of God who from his exalted throne smiles at the manikins and mocks at them.” (Psalms, A. Wieser p. 112)

The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
    the Lord scoffs at them. (Psalm 2:4)

While the nations conspire to pursue evil among us our God laughs, for he knows that all they do is in vain.  He who laughs last…