Song of Ascents is a title given to fifteen of the Psalms, 120–134 (119–133 in the Septuagint and the Vulgate), that each starts with the ascription Shir Hama'aloth (Hebrew: שיר המעלות, meaning "Song of Ascent"). They are also variously called Gradual Psalms, Songs of Degrees, Songs of Steps or Pilgrim Songs.
Four of them (122, 124, 131 and 133) are claimed in their ascriptions to have been written by David, and one (127) by Solomon, the rest being anonymous. Some modern scholars do not believe that these ascriptions can be taken literally, although they give evidence that helps in dating of the Psalms and identifying their original use.
Many scholars believe these psalms were sung by the worshippers as they ascended up the road to Jerusalem to attend the three pilgrim festivals (Deuteronomy 16:16) or by the kohanim (priests) as they ascended the fifteen steps to minister at the Temple in Jerusalem.
They were well suited for being sung, by their poetic form and the sentiments they express. "They are characterized by brevity, by a key-word, by epanaphora, and by their epigrammatic style.... More than half of them are cheerful, and all of them hopeful."
Read more about Song Of Ascents: Christian Liturgy, Judaism: Present Day
Famous quotes containing the words song of and/or song:
“The city sleeps and the country sleeps,
The living sleep for their time, the dead sleep for their time,
The old husband sleeps by his wife and the young husband sleeps by his wife;
And these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them,
And such as it is to be of these more or less I am,
And of these one and all I weave the song of myself.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”
—Bible: Hebrew The Song of Solomon (l. II, 1)