As an improvement over yesterday, I feel like I am at least comprehending what I am reading. I still like the Psalm. I still find it heavy going to reconcile so much of what I am reading with my universalist belief in a loving god.
Malachi 4:1-3 works for me only in the context of revering the name of the Lord being equivalent to trying not to be wicked, arrogant and evil, going back to Jesus' "Love one another"; not in literally revering. We need to read within both the context in which the Bible was written and our own context. (The former for minimal understanding, the later because honestly, we can't help it and because we must if we are going to apply it to our lives.) Perhaps applying this generally to those who try to love one another is a valid interpretation.
I know I've used the weasel word "try" a couple of times here, but as I keep saying, none of us are perfect. (Or only perfect in a Hebrews 10:14 sense.) Only an honest attempt at doing so is possible.1 See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.
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