Song of Ascents

What it is

Fifteen psalms carry the same Hebrew heading, Shir Hama'aloth, which is usually translated as Song of the Ascents. In most Bibles they are numbered 120 to 134; the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate count them one lower, 119 to 133. Psalm 121 alone opens with a slightly different heading, Shir Lama'aloth. English readers also know the group as the Gradual Psalms, the Fifteen Psalms, the Songs of Degrees or the Pilgrim Songs. Four of them are linked by their headings to David, and one, Psalm 127, to Solomon. Three psalms run to only three verses, while Psalm 132 is the longest at eighteen.

Origins and theories

Nobody knows for certain who gathered these fifteen psalms or when. One common reading of the title is that worshippers sang them as they walked up the road to Jerusalem for the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. A second view gives them to the Levite singers, who climbed fifteen steps to serve in the temple. Others date them to the dedication of Solomon's temple, to celebrations after Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem's walls, or to a later editor who collected separate poems and tied them to pilgrimage after the Babylonian captivity. A copy in the Great Psalms Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls, written between 30 and 50 CE, preserves all fifteen in their familiar order.

Jewish practice

The Mishnah mentions the songs twice, linking their number to the fifteen steps between the Israelites' court and the women's court in the temple. Rashi repeats a rabbinic story in which David sang them to calm waters rising under the temple's foundation. Today Psalm 126, often called simply Shir Hamaalot, is said by Ashkenazi Jews before the Grace After Meals on Shabbat and festivals, because it speaks of joy and redemption. Some Jews leave a copy of Psalm 121 in the room where a baby is born, asking for an easy delivery, and keep one near the pram and in the nursery. Some communities recite all fifteen after Mincha on winter Shabbat afternoons, and Psalm 128 at Maariv when Shabbat ends.

Christian worship

The psalms entered Christian prayer through Jewish practice; early Christians read the Septuagint, where they are numbered 119 to 133. Hermits said the whole Psalter daily and monasteries chanted it in a week, so these songs came round often. In Orthodox and Byzantine-Rite Catholic churches they make up the Eighteenth Kathisma, read at Friday Vespers and every weekday evening in Great Lent; Slavic parishes also use it through the winter. Hymns called anabathmoi, in eight tones, follow them at Sunday Matins. In the West the Rule of Saint Benedict assigned them to the daytime offices. The Roman Rite moved them about in 1911 and 1960, and the modern Liturgy of the Hours spreads them across the four-week Psalter.

Shape and meaning

The fifteen share a style: short, hopeful, with a repeated opening word and a proverb-like finish. More than half are cheerful, and every one of them hopeful. Phrases from the priestly blessing echo through twelve of them, with one line of that blessing left out. Commentators notice a balanced design, with Psalm 127, the one credited to Solomon the temple builder, at the centre, seven psalms on either side and the divine name appearing twenty-four times on each side. Zion is never far away. The journey begins with distance from the temple in Psalm 120 and ends with a blessing on the servants who keep watch there by night, Psalm 134.

How Song of Ascents is kept

Jewish readers meet them at the table and in the synagogue: Psalm 126 before the Grace After Meals on Shabbat and festivals, the whole set after Mincha on winter Shabbat afternoons, Psalm 128 at Maariv as Shabbat closes. Some keep Psalm 121 nearby during childbirth and in the nursery. Christians meet them in choir: a reader or cantor takes the Kathisma at Friday Vespers, in Lent on weekday evenings, and at Matins on Sundays and feasts the anabathmoi are chanted in the tone of the week before the Gospel.

When and where

There is no single date. These psalms belong to the Three Pilgrimage Festivals and to Shabbat, to Friday Vespers through the year, to every weekday evening in Great Lent, and to winter in Slavic parishes. In the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours they come round across a four-week cycle.

They belong to Jewish prayer wherever Jews live, and to Christian worship far beyond the land where they were written. The temple steps and the road up to Jerusalem are their setting. They are strongest in Orthodox and Byzantine-Rite Catholic parishes, in Catholic religious houses, and in the homes and synagogues that keep the Shabbat and winter customs.

What Song of Ascents means

To those who sing them the fifteen psalms are about going up: to the temple, to the festivals, and, in Christian reading, to the heavenly Jerusalem. The anabathmoi are chanted as a sign that the service is climbing towards the Gospel. In Jewish use they carry joy and redemption, and Psalm 121 is trusted as a protection in childbirth and for a new child. Their balance and their blessings are read as a picture of a people drawing near the place where God is said to dwell.

Questions people ask about Song of Ascents

See also

PassoverA Jewish spring festival celebrating freedom from slavery with ritual mealsSukkotA seven-day autumn Jewish festival of temporary booths, harvest prayers and hospitalityHoly FireA fire ceremony in Jerusalem each year, kept by Orthodox Christians before EasterShavuotA late-spring Jewish festival of the wheat harvest and the giving of the Torah

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle

• Song of Ascents on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-11.