This past week I had a new adventure. I did some plumbing work I had never done before. But I got out my handy homeowner's guide, and followed along step by step. It took longer than I thought it would. But at last it was almost complete. Close to the very end came the time when I put on the nuts and bolts that held it all together.

As we reach toward the end of this series, we are approaching the step that tightens down and holds in place all the other work. The 11th step is: "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out."

The 25th Psalm was written by one trying to get his life together. This is the psalm of someone who has taken a long, hard look at his life and decided something has been seriously wrong and something much better is possible, both because of what he is willing to do, and because of what God is willing to permit.

Some consider this the psalm of the medium-sized sinner. It does not appear that there was necessarily some terrible crisis that occurred. But the moment sometimes comes without any particular crisis when we are ready to take a long look at our lives, turn everything over to God, trust in his leading, and try to move toward that newness of life.

The image in this psalm of God plucking our feet out of the net is one worth exploring. This net would be the one hunters used then to catch wild animals. They would dig a hole along the path an animal would take to get to their drinking place. Is this not an appropriate image for this series? The hole would be covered over, the animal would drop in, and there would be the net to catch hold of it.

The more it struggles to get out, the more it becomes entangled. The plea is for God to help get us out of this tangled net. Maybe we got caught up on the way to the drinking place, or somewhere else we may have gone out of habit, probably innocently. But we got tangled up, and the more we struggled on our own, the worse it got. The psalmist is trying to strike a deal with God to get him out of what he has gotten caught in.

Recall Jacob's dream at Bethel, and how Jacob tried to bargain with God. Jacob said that if God would give him clothes and food, and see that he got home safely, then this God would become his God. That hardly seems a mature religious concept. But God let him bargain. Here is another bargain. The psalmist promises certain things, like trusting God, waiting for God, watching for God.

In exchange, he asks God not to let him be put to shame, not to let his enemies exalt over him, to teach him God's truth, to be merciful, to remember God's covenant love, and then asks God to forget the sins of his youth. It is a prayer that, like all good prayers, involves baring our souls to God.

There is no particular order to the verses in the psalm. What he was doing was having each verse begin with another letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Their sequence has no particular significance to us. But some sections are particularly worth a second look.

He does seem to have had a serious problem with some people he identified as his enemies. In good measure this psalm is a prayer of deliverance from personal enemies. We are taught by Jesus to pray for our enemies. It is also right and proper to pray for deliverance from our enemies.

"Let not my enemies exalt over me." There are people whose presence in our thinking can continue to trouble us. There may be people you do not want to see because they have a better position, higher salary, the lover you wanted, the athletic ability you covet. You cannot stand the thought of their being smug about it.

Maybe they would have a malicious interest in your problems. You can just see their smirks, you can hear their mocking laughter. The psalmist does not ask God to destroy them. It is more the prayer of one who wants to be released from the torment which thoughts of them bring. "Release me from concern about whatever my enemies might think or do or say." That is a healthy prayer.

He recognizes his enemies and the troubles they have caused him, but he does not blame them for his troubles. I chose the path I took. If I fall into the net on this path, it is my responsibility.

In the midst of his trial the psalmist seeks "to know" God's will for him. This word translated "to know" is not a kind of academic knowledge, like knowing the number for pi. It is "knowing" in the same way a husband and wife know each other, the same kind of intimacy. It is moving from what we learn in the reading and hearing of Scripture to having that in our inner being. We are talking about God's will for us.

When a lot of people talk about "God's will" it makes me nervous. When the psalmist wrote this, he did not have in mind some great computer chip in the sky with my name and program all printed out. If you work with computers, you know that hitting the wrong button can completely destroy a program. If you lose power for just an instant, all the information you have just programmed can be lost. But if you hit the right buttons and do not lose power, the computer can do amazing things. God cannot be thought of like that. There are no programs laid out for us like AAA will plan our trips with all the routes and exits marked.

Especially when trouble strikes, I have a lot of difficulty calling that God's will. I do not think it is God's will that people are killed in war or that school buses fall off cliffs. I do not believe it is fair to say that the tragedy is God's will, but in the midst of that tragedy there are things God wills to have happen.

It is the difference between saying that it is God's will that a house catches fire, and saying that "if" the house catches fire, God's will is for it to be extinguished and the people gotten out safely. It is not God's will that our enemies exult over us. But if our enemies do what ought not to be done, then in that situation God has a will and a way for us to follow.

Doing God's will is not first having a road map. It is first trusting in what we will not see this side of eternity. The psalmist was mindful of God's steadfast will from of old (v. 6) and trusted that day because of what God has done in the past.

The will of God is not simply something that happens to us. The will of God is something to do. It involves our being willing to pray for knowledge and to pray for the strength to carry out that will.

The psalm is a plea for personal help. Paul pleads for the kind of community which helps those who are struggling with life's direction. Paul was not writing to a prosperous church. He was writing to a new church that had struggled and was about to enter into a far more difficult struggle. He was writing to a church where many within the fellowship were struggling with their life and faith.

Like the psalmist, Paul gives us a whole catalogue of things to consider in the life of faith. Our concerns are often like the Psalmist's; worries about our enemies, about our children, about the sins of our youth, about our relationship to God.

But sometimes our life's journey is not primarily asking God to help us, but to agonize with God for people whose lives are troubled. It is in loving one another, loving the unlovely and the unlovable, loving the fainthearted and spiritually frail, loving those caught up in a snare, that our journey of faith reaches outward.

There are some of us who are easily discouraged, those who are the "faint-hearted." The weak to whom Paul refers were possibly a morally unstable group, people still caught up in their sins. Paul urges the church to (21) "test everything; hold fast to that which is good."

One of the reasons the psalmist mentioned youth is that is often the time when we test everything. Limits get tested: how fast to drive, how far to go sexually, how daring in trying drink and drugs, how much to cheat on tests. Our is not to repay people with evil for the evil they have done. Ours is not to quench the spirit. Ours is to help the weak, to be patient with all persons.

Paul gives what seems rosy advice "Rejoice always." Why? Should we really be giving thanks to God for all the struggles of life? Should the alcoholic really give thanks for the struggle with addiction? Should the epileptic really give thanks for the continued silent threat? Should the childless couple really give thanks for infertility? Should the chronically depressed really give thanks for their depression? The list of painful questions is endless.

I do not give thanks for the struggle of the soul when I find myself praying as Jesus did in the garden, "Let this cup of suffering pass from me." That seems an inhuman choice to have to make.

But notice that Paul did not say be thankful for everything but in every circumstance. I was not thankful that my mother died of cancer. But in that circumstance I was thankful: thankful for the comfort of the Holy Spirit; thankful for the strength my mother received from her prayers and the prayers of others, thankful for the love and support my mother received from family and friends; thankful for the church's continuing ministry to her.

There are those who think that the words "religion" and "rejoicing" do not belong together. There are a lot of people who think that if something is fun, it cannot be Christian. "Everything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening." We have a joy that is deeper than an immediate pleasure.

We rejoice when we know that the grips of the old way of living have been broken. We rejoice when people have been released from the nets that held them. We rejoice when peoples' lives are transformed by the renewal of their mind. Christ's life embodied that deeper joy.

In the life of Jesus we have one who both prayed for himself to understand and to do God's will, and who in love reached out to pray for others, that they would also know and do God's will. Let me set the scene for the gospel reading. That night Jesus celebrated his last supper with his disciples. If you recall, they did have wine with supper, and sometimes when things get tense we like just a bit of the grape to help us relax and rest.

Remember also that there were arguments at the last supper. For most of the people most of the time, a glass of wine will help you relax and become more social. But for others it has the opposite effect. It causes them to become belligerent and anti-social. One of the effects of excessive consumption of alcohol is the suppression of our capacity to reason and the suppression of the basic moral standards we have developed.

Do you remember the song from "Jesus Christ Superstar," which is a kind of irreverent song the disciples sang after their last supper with Christ? It portrays them as having gotten drunk, and being drunk, they lost the understanding of the gravity of the situation as Jesus had explained it, and started singing about retiring and writing the gospels.

The Bible commentaries do not talk about it, and the Bible does not specifically mention it, but it is entirely possible that Peter could not pray with Jesus because Peter had too much to drink and could not stay awake. This took place, after all, in an olive orchard.

If we are seeking to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out, periods of unconsciousness due to excessive consumption of alcohol and drugs is, at best, counterproductive.

So we have the scene in which Jesus struggles in prayer, and in his prayer we see how it can be terribly difficult to give your will to God. You know how difficult it can be for a child to do a parent's will, even if that is something so simple as putting away a jacket. Jesus struggled with his human will as it conflicted with God's will. He sought both the knowledge of what God wanted him to do, and the power to do it.

It is important to note that even though Peter was to fall asleep, one as great as the Son of the living God, sought out companionship with Peter in the hour of struggle. This should be an example to us to be willing to be with those who seek our help, and to be willing to seek others who ask us to help them face their trials.

Notice also that Jesus was concerned for Peter's capacity to know God's will and have the power to do that. Jesus wanted Peter to pray for himself. It was Jesus who was to face the betrayal, the trial, the beating and death. But Jesus wanted Peter to pray for himself, so that Peter would receive the power from God to face the time. Instead of praying, Peter slept.

Sleep is a great escape. That is part of the appeal in the use of drugs and alcohol. They make us, in the words of the song by Pink Floyd "comfortably numb." My best friend is about to get the axe. I cannot stand by and watch it happen. I will sit down, have a drink and become oblivious to all the pain.

I was listening to a radio talk show this week in which there was a discussion about adjusting to divorce. One woman called and voiced what is a common complaint. When she and her husband got divorced, she lost all her friends. Most people cannot bear to watch friends have such troubles, so they simply stop seeing them.

We can go to God for the strength to face the troubles and to receive the knowledge of what to do, because even if we are like Peter, turning our back on our best friend, perhaps having too much to drink and escaping into sleep when we should be on our knees praying passionately, God's greatest desire is to give us the strength we need.

There is a medieval legend which says that sometime during the 12th century, Henry II of England laid siege to the French city of Le Mans, but he failed to take it, and so he retired, baffled and enraged. According to the legend, he deliberately blasphemed God in order to ensure his own damnation. "Since thou hast taken from me the thing I most delight in - Le Mans - I will deprive thee of the thing thou hast most delight in - my soul."

The most painful thing to God is not our sins. It is most painful to God if we choose to let our sins keep us from God. It is the soul of each of us God cares for most passionately. Whether we are the weak, the idle, the fainthearted, our God waits to give us understanding and power, if we are only willing to seek earnestly it in meditation and prayer.