Psalm 2When God laughed, how did He laugh? In a hysterical way, a joyful hearty chuckle, a mocking manner, or a bitter laughter? I believe in this psalm, God first laughs like a father would when his lil girl tells him, "Daddy, i'm going to kill the lion tmr." Laughing cos of his lil' girl's naviety, and her guts. But that laughter fades as God realises His children are trying to bring Him down, and His ppl along with Him. Though He knows full well that their efforts are futile, like a lil' mouse trying to kill an elephant by hitting it furiously with its lil' palms, it hurts Him deeply, knowing they have such an intention. It's like when the lil' girl tells her dad, "And after i kill the lion, Daddy, i'm going to kill you." And then his laughter turns to that of derision, and of mockery..
I didn't read the Message version until i'd finished writing this, and amazingly the translator seems to have gotten the same idea from God...
"Heaven-throned God breaks out laughing. At first he's amused at their presumption; Then he gets good and angry."
Psalm 3I read this psalm over and over again a few times, and i asked that God would show me how David felt when he wrote this. How would you feel if your son, your own flesh and blood, betrays you, plots to take over your kingdom and now sends tens of thousands of your own army after you, to take your life? Anger, fear, hurt...i believe these are but some emotions that David experienced at that time. But i believe at the moment of writing this psalm, the main emotion is fear. David could be hiding in some cave in the mountains now, faint from hunger and haven't taken a bath in days. He started the psalm by telling God how he felt, exactly as the situation is. "God! Look! Enemies past counting! Enemies sprouting like mushrooms, Mobs of them all around me, roaring their mockery: "Hah! No help for him from God!" David is afraid, terrified, and he is honest with God.
And then, Selah. From Ps Debra's devotional, i found out that Selah could either mean 'pause or moment of silent meditation' or 'lifting up of voices or the lifting up/blowing of trumpets' or 'musical interlude'. I doubt David would be blowing trumpets at this point, from my conjecture this Selah prolly meant 'pause or moment of silent meditation'. Why? Maybe cos his emotions were too overwhelming at that point, maybe cos he was crying too hard to continue. After that moment of silent meditation, he goes on to seek solace in God, and declare the Lord's faithfulness even in his extreme circumstances.
Next he said, "I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people. Who have set themselves against me all around." This is quite funny, because the reason i'm awake at this time is because i woke up in the middle of the night feeling wide awake, and i thought maybe God wants to speak to me, so i went to read this psalm, and "I lay down and slept: I awoke, for the Lord sustained me." jumped out at me. That
sounds like what just happened to me, i thought. Haha. As i struggled to understand what David meant when he wrote this, God led me to the understanding that David must have been dead tired from days of climbing the mountains and hiding, yet was afraid to sleep lest someone attacks him in his sleep and takes his life. So he gave thanks to God for giving him the peace to fall asleep, and for protecting him from harm, when he awoke.