Sukkot: The Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120-135)

The Psalms of Ascent (שִׁירים הַמַּעֲלוֹת Shirim haMa’alot, Psalms 120-135) are called such because they relate to the ancient practice of publicly singing these songs when going to God’s house in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). These poems are connected to סוכת Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, which runs for seven days from the 15th day of the seventh month on the biblical calendar.

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Going to the dwelling place of the Holy One of Israel involves going upward in space and thought: the Mountain of God, the Temple Mount. Ancient accounts connect the Psalms of Ascent with going up to the Temple.

“Beyond the Women’s Court, to the west, were fifteen semicircular steps (m.Middot 2:5) on which the Levites stood when they sang the Songs of the Ascents (Psalms 120–134).” (Dictionary of Early Judaism)

“The most probable view is that the hymns were sung by pilgrim bands on their way to the three great festivals of the Jewish year. The journey to Jerusalem was called a ‘going up,’ whether the worshipper came from north or south, east or west. All of the songs are suitable for use on such occasions. Hence the title Pilgrim Psalms is preferred by many scholars.” (J. R. Sampey, “Song of Ascents,” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Revised, 1979)

This is how the Sukkot temple ceremony is recorded in the Talmud:

The pious men and wonder-workers would dance before them, with flaming torches in their hand, and they would sing before them songs and praises. And the Levites played on harps, lyres, cymbals, trumpets, and [other] musical instruments beyond counting,[standing, as they played] on the fifteen steps which go down from the Israelites’ court to the women’s court, corresponding to the fifteen Songs of Ascents which are in the Book of Psalms — on these the Levites stand with their instrument and sing their song. And two priests stood at the upper gate which goes down from the Israelites’ court to the women’s court, with two trumpets in their hands. [When] the cock crowed, they sounded a sustained, a quavering, and a sustained blast on the shofar.

[When] they got to the tenth step, they sounded a sustained, a quavering, and a sustained blast on the shofar. [When] they reached the courtyard, they sounded a sustained, a quavering, and a sustained blast on the shofar. They went on sounding the shofar in a sustained blast until they reached the gate which leads out to the east.

[When] they reached the gate which goes out toward the east, they turned around toward the west, and they said, “Our fathers who were in this place turned with their backs toward the Temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they worshipped the sun toward the east (Eze. 8:16). “But as to us, our eyes are toward the Lord.”

R. Judah says, “They said it a second time, ‘We belong to the Lord, our eyes are toward the Lord.’” (t.Sukkah 51b, Jacob Neusner translation)

As you read these Psalms, picture Messiah leading the people of God “up to the house of the LORD.” When you reach the 15th step of the temple, which is the top, picture yourself with God. “How good and joyous it is for brothers to dwell together in unity” (Psalm 133:1).

Banner photo: Model of Herod’s Temple in the model of Jerusalem (Berthold Werner / Wikimedia Commons) Nov. 9, 2008