At first glance, the Psalm and the Gospel seem incongruous. But how many people are living that incongruity? We pray the psalm, God teach me your ways. But when it comes down to it, we doubt our faith and doubt the authority of those teachings. The priests ask on whose authority Jesus is teaching. When he insinuates that he is teaching by God’s authority, they are more concerned with politics and appearances than they are with the true teaching.            

The psalm says, “Teach me your ways, Lord.” People say they want to be on the right path. They want to know and understand the ways of the Lord, but are we like those priests? They were in the presence of the Lord who was teaching his ways, but they doubted his authority. They were concerned about their own position and power. They caged their answer. They would not commit.        

But if we do not commit to God’s way, we will never understand the teachings. We ask God to guide us in his path and make his ways known to us. But that way is not always easy. Those paths are sometimes difficult, and sometimes hard to see. Will we doubt his way when it gets difficult? Will we ask for that guidance, and then doubt the answer?

When we ask the Lord to teach us his ways, we need to commit to that curriculum in faith, and trust his authority and his goodness.