“He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord is laughing them to scorn.” (Ps 2:4)
Laughter arises when we take notice of absurdity. We are rational creatures, capable of knowing things about the world, other people, and ourselves. Our rationality also means that we develop expectations. We have ideas about reality that can be confounded or contradicted. For example, we have ideas about monkeys and their ways. When we see a viral video of a monkey getting a haircut, it contradicts our expectations. It’s absurd—it’s funny—and so we laugh!
In Psalm 2 quoted above, God laughs, which means he takes notice of something absurd. The psalm tells us who he is laughing at in its opening verse: “Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain?” (Ps 2:1). This is bad news: we are the peoples, and we plot in vain. God is laughing at us. In his Providence, this can teach us something about our identity and what we are made for. God does not laugh to no end.
One of the great absurdities of creation, worthy of the most mirth, is man. Man, with his God-given dignity, is the most humble-able, and so is the most laughable. G.K. Chesterton remarks in an essay, “Unless a thing is dignified, it cannot be undignified. Why is it funny that a man should sit down suddenly in the street? There is only one possible or intelligent reason: that man is the image of God. It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down.” When a tree falls, he continues, that is not funny. When snow falls, it may be beautiful or wonderful, but not funny. To our minds, falling is just the sort of thing trees and snow usually do. But, when a man, capable of craft, powerful to gaze upon the cosmos, able to be friends with God himself— when he slips on a banana peel, we laugh! We laugh because we know something of how great and terrible man really is, and how trivial banana peels are. Man is made in the image of God. Banana peels are not.
In Psalm 2, God laughs at a specific action of ours: not our slips and trips, but our plots and schemes. We have a tendency to obsess over the smallest and most trivial. Our days are whiled away with thoughts about work, video games, our looks, traffic, and the weather. We dwell on our insecurities. We think about what others think of us. In reality, most of what we think about will pass away. In the light of eternity, so much of our obsession is over nothing. We are made to live with God in the light of his face forever, and, yet, we concern ourselves with dust. It’s absurd—it’s funny—and so God laughs!
The remedy here is reprioritization. The Psalmist concludes his meditation in the last verse by telling us where true happiness is found. “Blessed are all who take refuge in Him” (Ps 2:12). We should think perceptively of our world, and make an effort to see all things in the light of truth and faith. Much of that will be a matter of taking ourselves, our schemes, and our vanities less seriously. God does not love us more or less because of what we accomplish. Our greatest failures do nothing to change this amazing fact, and, so, we can laugh at them. By putting our lives in perspective, we can prioritize love and take refuge in him who loves us. God will get the last laugh. It’s up to us to join him.
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Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)
