Sing a New Psalm:
Communicating with God Through
the Prayers of the Church
Volume I: Lauds & Vespers
Lesson 24 I Will Walk with Blameless Heart
Psalm 101, Psalm 143, and Psalm 147:1–11
Thursday Lauds (Week II)
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
next lesson: What Is Man That You Regard Him?
This material coordinates with Lesson 24 on pages 98–101 in Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. Our Catholic Bible study is based on
The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, an English translation of the Psalms prepared by the monks at Conception Abbey in 2010 and first published as The Revised Grail Psalms. The Abbey Psalms and Canticles is a revision of that work, finished in 2020 and published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Wording and numbering of some Psalms and verses in other translations may differ. This new translation of the Psalms in the process of being added to all English-language Liturgy of the Hours books used in the United States. The USCCB also plans a liturgical Bible based on the NABRE translation.
“Unlike other prayers in sacred Scripture, the prayers contained in the Psalms are not inserted into a narrative story that specifies their meaning and function. Instead, the Psalms are given to the believer precisely as a text of prayer. Since they are the Word of God, the believer who prays the Psalms speaks to God using the very words that God himself has given to us. Thus, in praying the Psalms we learn to pray. The Psalms are a school of prayer.”—Pope Benedict XVI
welcome to our in-depth study of the Psalms
We invite groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson from this 28-
lesson Turning to 
God’s Word Catholic Bible study. Our online study pages include additional questions, commentary, and prayers based on the Psalm texts. Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers has been granted an imprimatur. A digital version of this study can be purchased from our website shop. Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline is scheduled for publication in 2025. If you have a Bible-study question or comment, click on one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons on any online study page..
open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words, pray one of the Psalms in this lesson, or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:
Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.
what does integrity of heart require?
This illustration by Turning to God’s Word founder Tami Palladino captures two aspects of behaving with integrity. The glorious sunrise toward which the figure is heading indicates the hopeful future in store for the righteous. The road ahead suggests that a commitment to moral behavior places us on a journey that will have its ups and downs before we reach our destination. What specific things would you need to do if you decided to echo the Psalmist’s vow to walk with a blameless heart from this point on in your life? What sort of help from God would you need to purify your motives? How can you go about asking God for such help? Click on Tami’s illustration (right) to enlarge it. Her original illustrations is on page 99 in Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers.
WHAT DO YOU THINK about other Christians imitating you?
“Imitating the Faithful” on page 99 in Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers examines the idea of looking to the faithful of the land as models of moral behavior, something suggested in Psalm 101. In the New Testament, Paul takes this concept a daring step forward when in his First Letter to the Corinthians 4:16 he writes to the early Christians: “I urge you then, be imitators of me.”
? What obstacles might prevent Christians you know from setting themselves up as models of moral behavior?
? Consider what exemplary moral behavior looks like in the present day.
? Whom do you know who might serve as a model for others?
? In what ways might you serve as an exemplary Christian?
? What might prevent you from being someone other Christians should imitate?
the popes inspire us—is your heart broken?
Perhaps it’s time to allow God to mend your heart. Take a few minutes to read “God Heals the Brokenhearted” on page 101 in Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. In this excerpt from a papal audience, Pope St. John Paul II teaches that not only does God heal those whose hearts are broken, sometimes it’s hearts swollen with pride that need to be broken before healing can occur. What forms of healing have you experienced through your Catholic faith?
justification—you could look it up in our archives
Psalm 101 urges imitating the faithful. How would you define Christian faith, and what do might be the point of being faithful? To what does your faith lead? To learn Paul’s thinking regarding the link between faith and justification, read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.
read the Catechism—how well do you know your faith?
Can you explain the differences between calumny, detraction & rash judgment? To learn what the Church teaches, refer to paragraph 2477 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church?
? How do you deal with calumny, detraction, and rash judgment?
? Do you know which of these are sinful even though they involve telling the truth?
? Under what circumstances are you most tempted to engage in calumny, detraction, or rash judgment?
? What can you do to lessen the chances of committing one of these sins?
? How can you help others to avoid calumny, detraction, or rash judgment?
the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by passages in Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however, including Psalm 101 and Psalm 147:1–11 in this lesson.
don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.
ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
Link to magisterial documents referred to in our Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. 
This listing includes significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.
wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following links are to readings from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, open one of the links and click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV readings provide an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical texts. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
Psalm 101 (NIV)
Psalm 143 (NIV)
Psalm 147:1–11 (NIV)
close with a Psalms-based prayer for Thursday Lauds (Week II)
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers, you can follow our four easy steps. If you prefer, you can pray any of the Psalms in this lesson, or you can use the following short prayer.
O loving and faithful God,
you help us stay on the path of blamelessness
as we make our way through life.
Grant that our efforts to uproot evil from our own lives
will lead others to wish to imitate us.
We ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ,
our model of perfect love. Amen.
Lesson 25 What Is Man That You Regard Him? Thursday Vespers (Week II)—Psalm 144 and Psalm 145
Lesson 23 O Give Thanks to the LORD, Wednesday Vespers (Week II)—Psalm 136, Psalm 137, and Psalm 138
you also may like our two-part study of the prophets
Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided examines the prophets in their historical context using the First and Second Books of the Kings and other Old Testament passages written before the Babylonian Exile in 586 B.C. Volume II: Restoration & Redemption looks at the post-exilic prophets. This 51-lesson Catholic Bible study builds on The United Kingdom of Israel: Saul, David & Solomon Foreshadow Christ the King. Click on the books’ covers to view a sample lesson from each volume.
start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. 
More information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found on this website at start a Bible study, and Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer questions or discuss concerns. Contact us to start this or one of our other studies or to have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer
*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus—but the same books aren’t found in existing Hebrew manuscripts, which aren’t as old as the oldest version of the Septuagint. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?
Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online study pages for Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV doesn’t include the deuterocanonical passages.
The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces those with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.
The Psalms in this Bible study reflect numbering used in The Abbey Psalms and Canticles; Psalms numbering may vary in other translations. Numbering also may vary for a few other passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSVCE and RSV2CE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.
The companion to this Catholic Bible study from Turning to God’s Word, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, will cover Psalms not included in Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline is scheduled for publication in 2025.