Psalm 121:3-8

song n. — a piece of music that is either played on instruments, sung, or both.

pilgrimage ascent n. — a kind of loose procession of pilgrims moving upwards.

song of ascents, to the three great pilgrim feasts, i.e. to be sung on way up to Jerusalem (Brown, Francis, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs. Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon 1977 : 752)

ascending procession, i.e., an ascending walk to a higher space (Swanson, James. Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) 1997 : n. pag.)

lift - verb - 1 raise or be raised to a higher position or level.

▶ raise (someone’s spirits or confidence).

2 pick up and move to a different position.

Soanes, Catherine, and Angus Stevenson, eds. Concise Oxford English dictionary 2004 : n. pag. Print.

...majority of recent scholars understands “ascents” as a reference to the “going up” to Jerusalem for the annual festivals held there (see Deut 16:16 ).

A “going up” to Jerusalem is mentioned in Psalm 122:4 of this group, as well as in texts like I Kings 12:28 , Isaiah 2:3 , Matthew 20:17 and Luke 2:42 ; Psalm 24:3 refers to ascending the “hill of the Lord.” Thus these psalms may be designated “pilgrimage psalms.”

II. ANALYSIS OF PSALM 121 In its earliest setting, Psalm 121 seems to have functioned as a farewell liturgy:18

The one about to set out says:

1. I lift up my eyes to the mountains. From whence does my help come? 2. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

The one staying behind addresses the traveller:

3. He will not let your foot stumble, he who watches over you will not doze off. 4. Indeed, the One who watches over Israel will not doze off, nor will he sleep. 5. The Lord is your Protector; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. 6. By day the sun will not harm you, nor the moon by night. 7. The Lord will protect you from all evil; he will watch over your life. 8. The Lord will watch over your going out and your coming in from now to eternity.

(17Erwin Mülhaupt, ed., D. Martin Luthers Psalmen Auslegung, 3. Band, (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1965) 599, my translation. 18Westermann points to similarities in both structure and content with Psalm 91 , which also has the speaker’s words in the 1st person (v. 2) followed by address to the speaker in the second person (vv. 3-13), Ausgewählte Psalmen (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984) 202. page 184)