God Laughs – At the Blissfully Unaware
God Laughs – At the Blissfully Unaware.
“The One who sits enthroned in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them… The wicked plot against the righteous; they snarl at them in defiance. But the Lord laughs, for He sees their day of judgment coming… They come out at night, snarling like vicious dogs as they prowl the streets. Listen to the filth that comes from their mouths, their words cut like swords. ‘After all, who can hear us?’ they sneer. For your part, Lord, you laugh at them.” (Psalm 2:4; Psalm 37:13; Psalm 59:6-8).
It seems to me that our Lord God has an ironic sense of humor. He is reported to have deep belly laughs when He looks at mankind and sees how ridiculous we can be. He seems to laugh whenever we humans do things that are laughably absurd. God sees irony everywhere, He observes behavior that is unexpectedly foolish in light of His greatness. God seems amused when He sees the opposite of what one should expect in a God-filled universe. He chuckles at attitudes that defy logic from His perspective. On the one hand, God isn’t surprised by anything. On the other hand, He seems to be pleasantly scornful at what we humans can do.
People build an immense building and think it will reach God and enable access to Him, and God finds it ridiculous. He sees nations without a conscience conspire against God to cut Him out of their laws and society, and God can only say, ‘Are you serious?’ He sees a man who thinks he can become equal to Him in every respect, a god-player, and God can only shake His head. God observes someone who thinks He is able to flee His presence and live as if He doesn’t exist, and God can only look at him with righteous scorn. He hears many of us utter obscene and hurtful language thinking that no one is within earshot, and God can only say, ‘You’re just kidding me, right?’ He sees so many who think they can do evil and live without restraint, and God can only sigh in sad amusement, knowing there will be a true come-to-Jesus moment waiting in the future. God knows that there will be a Judgment Day coming, and He takes joy in the reality of a moral universe that He created. He knows that all who have rejected Him will someday reap what they sown if they have rejected His grace in life. All this foolishness, all this thoughtlessness… Is it that we don’t have a high enough view of God? Is it that we have too high a view of ourselves? Both? Perhaps what makes God laugh loudest is our futile hubris, our unrighteous chutzpah.
Our downfall is probably attributed to our hubris, which can be defined this way:
HUBRIS: a Greek word that means excessive pride; exaggerated self-conceit; overwhelming self-confidence; sheer arrogance; in ancient Greece, hubris was a character flaw reflecting a defiance of the gods, when someone would foolishly or maliciously act against the divine order; someone with hubris always has a lack of self-awareness and won’t stop to examine his behavior or consider other actions; people with hubris are generally too full of themselves to question their motives or actions; people who are overcome with hubris eventually bring about their own downfall. As Rabbi Jonathon Sacks once wrote, “If Scripture is our guide, what makes God laugh is a person’s delusion of grandeur.”
“People sneak around the city, snarling like a pack of stray dogs as they prowl in the night, shouting out filth, convinced that they will never get caught. They belch out insults and curses with their mouths, with sharp swords of sarcasm, ridicule, slander and deceit on their lips. After all, they sneer, who is there that can hear us? No one is listening anyway! But you, O Lord, scornfully laugh at them. You scoff at their ignorant and sinful ways. You look at the rebellious nations and hold them in derision. You make a mockery of all the godless nations, treating them like a pitiful joke.” (Psalm 59:7-8).
It really is a pity when we see those who act as if God doesn’t exist, that there is no one listening to their hurtful and obscene jabbering. It is easy to observe those who are not conscious of God’s personal presence in the world. It is not difficult to spot those who believe that there is no one who is holding them accountable in their daily lives. After all, isn’t that who David is referring to in Psalm 59? But wait a minute. There are some of us believers who live in a similar way during our weak moments, who are fooled into thinking that God is merely an important theory or principle, but certainly not a vital presence. There are some of us who love the idea of God, but who don’t actually love God. Many of us religious folk believe that God exists, but then we go on and live in a way that doesn’t reflect a faith in God’s meaningful existence. In a sinful world, we could easily become practical atheists in which we function like unbelievers. And we unthinkingly go on our merry way being unaware of God’s hold on our life.
The list of those who live as if God didn’t exist isn’t limited to unbelievers or atheists. There are temptations for all of us:
… To live our lives as if no one is watching;
… To speak as if no one is listening;
… To comment on social media as if we were completely anonymous;
… To light-heartedly commit wrongs as if there is no Judge;
… To cheat as if no one will notice;
… To treat others as if they weren’t made in God’s image;
… To commit to God until He wants us to change.
It’s vital that we don’t live like the “dogs” in Psalm 59, who live without an awareness of the accountability of God’s moral universe. Yes, we do have Someone who is listening, who is observing, who is noticing what we do. We will never be completely anonymous because there is an ever-living God who is personally present and vitally interested in our daily world.
God scoffs at those without God-consciousness. He is amused at the ignorance of the blissfully unaware. God looks at the hubris of those who pretend He doesn’t exist, and He scorns those who live in the light of that hubris. His scorn is mixed with mercy, and with moral integrity. God knows that those who tragically deny His existence also end up refusing His grace. And that is truly pitiful.