Book of Life

DEVOTION

PSALMS

BOOK OF LIFE

Ps 9:3-6

3 My enemies turn back; they stumble and perish before you. 4 For you have upheld my right and my cause; you have sat on your throne, judging righteously. 5 You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked; you have blotted out their name for ever and ever. 6 Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy, you have uprooted their cities; even the memory of them has perished.

NIV

At first glance this might be taken as David singing to God about his current enemies. We could see that David has been pursued and that God has intervened and judged that David’s cause is just and so God destroyed his enemies. But the phrase about God having blotted out their names for ever and ever gives us the idea this is talking about the last day. Also the verbiage about endless ruin gives us that same idea. We also see God sitting upon his throne judging righteously. This is really looking like the Day of the Lord. The righteous will not have to turn back, they will be given access to the rest of the Lord, the paradise of God. But the wicked, they stumble, they have been turned back from his rest and cast out into the lake of burning sulfur where they perish before God. The righteous will not have their names blotted out of the book of life.

Rev 3:4-6

 They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life , but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

NIV

We can see the scene in heaven as clearly as the psalmist can, seeing God on his throne judging all peoples. We can see the endless ruin, of the wicked. All heaven and earth will experience a great upheaval and all the great cities mankind has built as their own edifice, much like the tower of Babel will be uprooted. When Jesus told his disciples about the destruction of the temple, which did take place in AD 70, and that not one stone would be left upon another, it does not even compare to the destruction of the cities of man. Everyone remembers the temple, but no one is going to remember cities like New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Sidney, Los Angeles, Dallas, or any of the great cities of this world. Not a memory at all, they will all be so destroyed, the elements will even melt. That means the steel, the aluminum, the concrete and glass, all that exists will simply melt away to nothing, becoming molten lava, as it were. Because they will be in torment day and night for ever and ever there only thought will be their torment and they will have no memory of what was their cities. We too will not remember as we will be in the new earth, the paradise of God, the new city of Jerusalem in the presence of our Lord. All the glory and grandeur will overshadow any thoughts of our past. We will be forever praising our God, giving thanks for our salvation. We will be enjoying eating from the tree of life, and having rest. Our names will forever be written in the book of life.