Chapter 120

The first of the Songs of Ascents, sung by pilgrims going up to Jerusalem. The writer is in distress, living among people who lie and hate peace, and cries to the LORD for help.

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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary on the Bible (1710)

This psalm is the first of those fifteen which are here put together under the title of “songs of degrees.” It is well that it is not material what the meaning of that title should be, for nothing is offered towards the explication of it, no, not by the Jewish writers themselves, but what is conjectural. These psalms do not seem to be composed all by the same hand, much less all at the same time.…

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, David Brown’s Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary (1871)

(vv. 2)

Psa 120:1-7. This is the first of fifteen Psalms (Psalms 120-134) entitled “A Song of Degrees” (Psa 121:1--literally, “A song for the degrees”), or ascents. It seems most probable they were designed for the use of the people when going up (compare 1Ki 12:27, 28) to Jerusalem on the festival occasions (De 16:16), three times a year. David appears as the author of four, Solomon of one (Psa 127:1), a…