Psalms

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Psalm 59

1 For the music director, according to the al-tashcheth style; a prayer of David, written when Saul sent men to surround his house and murder him. Deliver me from my enemies, my God. Protect me from those who attack me. 2 Deliver me from evildoers. Rescue me from violent men. 3 For look, they wait to ambush me; powerful men stalk me, but not because I have rebelled or sinned, O Lord. 4 Though I have done nothing wrong, they are anxious to attack. Spring into action and help me. Take notice of me. 5 You, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, rouse yourself and punish all the nations. Have no mercy on any treacherous evildoers. (Selah) 6 They return in the evening; they growl like dogs and prowl around outside the city. 7 Look, they hurl insults at me and openly threaten to kill me, for they say, “Who hears?” 8 But you, O Lord, laugh in disgust at them; you taunt all the nations.⁠ 9 You are my source of strength. I will wait for you. For God is my refuge. 10 The God who loves me will help me; God will enable me to triumph over my enemies. 11 Do not strike them dead suddenly, because then my people might forget the lesson. Use your power to make them homeless vagabonds and then bring them down, O Lord who shields us. 12 They speak sinful words. So let them be trapped by their own pride and by the curses and lies they speak. 13 Angrily wipe them out. Wipe them out so they vanish. Let them know that God rules over Jacob and to the ends of the earth. (Selah) 14 They return in the evening; they growl like dogs and prowl around outside the city. 15 They wander around looking for something to eat; they refuse to sleep until they are full. 16 As for me, I will sing about your strength; I will praise your loyal love in the morning. For you are my refuge and my place of shelter when I face trouble. 17 You are my source of strength. I will sing praises to you. For God is my refuge, the God who loves me.

Texts in conversation

Compare Psalm 2:4 and Psalm 59:8

Hebrew Bible

Summary

Psalm 2 and Psalm 59 both portray divine laughter as mockery rather than joy, expressing superiority over human defiance. In each, laughter becomes a sign of judgment, a verbal weapon used to expose human weakness before divine authority.

Passages

Psalm 2:4

Hebrew Bible

2 The kings of the earth form a united front; the rulers collaborate against the Lord and his anointed king. 3 They say, “Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us. Let’s free ourselves from their ropes.” 4 The one enthroned in heaven laughs in disgust; the Lord taunts them. 5 Then he angrily speaks to them and terrifies them in his rage, saying, 6 “I myself have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill.”

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

Psalm 59:8

Hebrew Bible

6 They return in the evening; they growl like dogs and prowl around outside the city. 7 Look, they hurl insults at me and openly threaten to kill me, for they say, “Who hears?” 8 But you, O Lord, laugh in disgust at them; you taunt all the nations. 9 You are my source of strength. I will wait for you. For God is my refuge. 10 The God who loves me will help me; God will enable me to triumph over my enemies.

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... Psalm 2:4 ... oddly there is no humor, no joyous laughter echoing from the heavens, and no image in that mirror of God as a merry old soul. The Romans did imagine Jupiter as a kind of heavenly Old King Cole. In fact the word jovial derives from a form of his name, Jove: “Characterized by hearty mirth, humour, or good fellowship; merry, jolly; convivial” . One looks in vain for friendly laughter or humor in most mythologies or in God’s Book and its Author. Of the thirty-eight occurrences of laugh in the King James Bible, twenty-two describe scornful or derisive laughter. In Proverbs, for instance, Wisdom (a primordial emanation of God) tells the fools who reject her counsel, “I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you ... when distress and anguish come upon you” (1:26–27). One hears a sort of divine version of the playground “na, na, na, na!” chanted appropriately with rising and falling intonation. What sort of divine “Wisdom” could take delight or satisfaction in extreme human suffering, however self-inflicted? Or consider the case of Sarah - the ninety-year-old woman who overhears Yahweh tell her husband that she will have a child in the spring. Sarah is sensibly incredulous, thinking perhaps that this is a divine jest: “So Sarah laughed to herself.” One might expect a wise, benevolent deity to laugh with her, but Yahweh is offended, hearing in her laughter a question as to his power: “Why did Sarah laugh ... ? Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Sarah, frightened by God’s reaction, denies laughing, but God accuses, “No, but you did laugh” (Genesis 18:10–15). Most commonly biblical laughter is demeaning: Job decries the fact that he is “mocked of his neighbor,” one who “calleth upon God, and he answered him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn” (Job 12:4). God’s laughter, too, is triumphant and scornful: “But thou, O Lord, dost laugh at them; / thou dost hold all the nations in derision” (Psalm 59:8) ..."

Deeanne Westbrook, Speaking of Gods in Figure and Narrative (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 213–214.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Psalms150 psalms

Compare Psalm 2:4 and Psalm 59:8

Summary

Passages

Psalm 2:4

Psalm 59:8

References

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