Degrees, Songs of. Fifteen Psalms 1:120-7, Psalms 1:121-8, Psalms 1:122-9, Psalms 1:123-4, Psalms 1:124-8, Psalms 1:125-5, Psalms 1:126-6, Psalms 1:127-5, Psalms 1:128-6, Psalms 1:129-8, Psalms 1:130-8, Psalms 1:131-3, Psalms 1:132-18, Psalms 1:133-3, Psalms 1:134-3, are so entitled. A variety of reasons has been suggested to account for this. The Jews believe that they were sung by the Levites on the fifteen steps which separated the men's court from the women's in the temple. Gesenius suggested that there was a progression in the thought and phraseology: the last member of a verse or part of it being taken up, repeated, and amplified in the next verse, thus:
"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,
From whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord,
Which made heaven and earth."
But this structure cannot be detected in all of them. Hengstenberg and others believe that they were "pilgrim-songs," chanted by those who went up to Jerusalem at the solemn feasts.