This is another in a series of excerpts from The Book of Life: What the Bible Says about God’s Registry of the Redeemed from High Street Press and available at Amazon. This except comes from Chapter 6: The Book of Life: Psalm 69:28.

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Let them be erased from the book of life and not be recorded with the righteous (Ps. 69:28).

Psalm 69:28 is the first reference to the book of life by name in Scripture. It shares some themes with “the book you have written” and “my book” in Exodus 32:32-33. For example, in both passages, there is the threat of people being erased from the book. Yet, the messianic context of Psalm 69 offers insights into righteous suffering, divine justice, and a passionate defense of God’s reputation.

When it comes to Psalm 69, British evangelist and author G. Campbell Morgan once commented, “Perhaps in no psalm in the whole psalter is the sense of sorrow profounder or more intense than in this. The soul of the singer pours itself out in unrestrained abandonment to the overwhelming and terrible grief which consumes it.”

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