These fifteen psalms form a short psalter within the Psalter, each
having the same title (with a slight grammatical variation in Psalm
cxxi.). Its meaning is very doubtful. Many of the older authorities
understand it to signify "a song of steps," and explain it by a very
uncertain tradition that these psalms were sung on fifteen steps
leading from the court of the women to that of the men, each on
one step. The R.V.'s rendering, "degrees," uses that word in this
sense (like the Latin _gradus_). But though undoubtedly the word
means steps, there is no sufficient support for the tradition in
question; and, as Delitzsch well observes, if this were the meaning
of the title, "it would be much more external than any of the other
inscriptions to the Psalms."
Another explanation fixes on the literal meaning of the word--_i.e._,
"goings up"--and points to its use in the singular for the Return
from Babylon (Ezra vii. 9), as supporting the view that these were
psalms sung by the returning exiles. There is much in the group of
songs to favour this view; but against it is the fact that Psalms
cxxii. and cxxxiv. imply the existence of the Temple, and the fully
organised ceremonial worship.
A third solution is that the name refers to the structure of these
psalms, which have a "step-like, progressive rhythm." This is Gesenius'
explanation, adopted by Delitzsch. But the peculiar structure in
question, though very obvious in several of these psalms, is scarcely
perceptible in others, and is entirely absent from Psalm cxxxii.
The remaining explanation of the title is the most probable--that
the "goings up" were those of the worshippers travelling to Jerusalem
for the feasts. This little collection is, then, "The Song Book of
the Pilgrims," a designation to which its contents well correspond.