God never invites people to come to Jesus. He commands it.

And convicts you of treason if you refuse.

The thread that ties together the tapestry of the Old and the New Testament is ultimately

a political thread, cosmically political, because the central motif of sacred scripture,

I believe, is the concept of the kingdom of God.

And what it was at issue here in chapter 2 of the Psalms was the kingship of God.

God's right to rule the rulers of this world.

But those who were invested with earthly authority are taking counsel together with one another to plan away, to rid

the universe of the authority of God.

Notice the reaction of God to this earthly conspiracy.

Kings of the earth set themselves.

You see, they agree with solemn packs and treaties,

and they affirm each other's strong determination that they're not going to waver from their

resolve to overthrow the king of the universe. God looks down at all these assembled powers

in the nuclear armaments pointed

in his direction, and it says, the Lord sits in his heaven and does what? Trembles in fear.

No, it says that the Lord sits in His heaven and laughs.

But it's not the laughter of amusement.

The psalmist describes the laughter of God here as the laughter of derision.

It's the laughter that one expresses when he holds his enemies in contempt. God

sits in heaven and sees the collective rebellion of the human race, pointed towards his authority,

and he looks and he says, ha, ha, ha, ha,

...