"He Who sits in Heaven laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then, He will speak to them in His anger, and He will terrify themin His fury, saying, "I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill."
The Lord is not laughing at us, or holding us in derision. He is mocking the "rulers who take counsel together against the Lord and against His Christ." He is deriding the power of the passions. For, although we experience them as a mighty force within us, their power is paltry, in fact, non-existent in the sight of His face. The passions say, "Let us break bonds asunder, and cast their cords from us." The bonds are the commandments of God, which the passions strive against. The cords are the graces, which the Lord gives to us, to direct us like reins. The passions desire to cast Divine Grace away. The presence and action of the Holy Spirit directing the soul by grace is obnoxious to them, since the passions are demon-controlled.
Nevertheless, the Lord "speaks to them in His wrath, and terrifies them in His fury," that is, He makes His power known. The wrath of God is God's action to right His Creation, when it has somehow gone astray. The passions and the passionate man experience this as an anger, but it is actually a mercy to His Creation (cf. St. Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on the Faith)
In the same way that He created the whole universe with a Word, He rights His capsized Creation with a Word, "I have set up my king on Zion my holy hill." He restores the soul to faithfulness (for it is called Zion, the name of the faithful soul) and firmly reestablishes over her the authority of His Christ.
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