Jews and Christians who lived in the ancient world did more than read and interpret they Bible. They lived it. In this lecture, we will explore the various ways in which Jews and Christians encountered the book of Psalms outside of the often-polemical context of biblical interpretation. We will “go on the ground” and explore various forms of pious practice into which both Jewish and Christian enmeshed the Psalms. We will also discuss how and why these patterns of religious expression often converge and then diverge, which will showcase the shared—but disputed—religious worlds that ancient Jews and early Christians inhabited.