If by “the mountains” in Psa 121:1 the mountains of the Holy Land are to be understood, it is also clear for what reason the collector placed this Song of degrees, which begins with the expression of joy at the pilgrimage to the house of Jahve, and therefore to the holy mountain, immediately after the preceding song. By its peace-breathing (שׁלום) contents it also, however, touches closely upon Psa 120:1-7. The poet utters aloud his hearty benedictory salutation to the holy city in remembrance of the delightful time during which he sojourned there as a visitor at the feast, and enjoyed its inspiring aspect. If in respect of the לדוד the Psalm were to be regarded as an old Davidic Psalm, it would belong to the series of those Psalms of the time of the persecution by Absalom, which cast a yearning look back towards home, the house of God (Psa 23:1-6; Psa 26:1-12, Psa 55:15; Psa 61:1-8, and more particularly Psa 63:1-11). But the לדוד is wanting in the lxx, Codd. Alex. and Vat.; and the Cod Sinait., which has ΤΩ ΔΑΔ, puts this before Psa 124:1-8, ει ̓ μὴ ὅτι κύριος κ. τ. λ., also, contrary to Codd. Alex. and Vat. Here it is occasioned by Psa 122:5, but without any critical discernment. The measures adopted by Jeroboam I show, moreover, that the pilgrimages to the feasts were customary even in the time of David and Solomon. The images of calves in Dan and Bethel, and the changing of the Feast of Tabernacles to another month, were intended to strengthen the political rupture, by breaking up the religious unity of the people and weaning them from visiting Jerusalem. The poet of the Psalm before us, however, lived much later. He lived, as is to be inferred with Hupfeld from Psa 122:3, in the time of the post-exilic Jerusalem which rose again out of its ruins. Thither he had been at one of the great feasts, and here, still quite full of the inspiring memory, he looks back towards the holy city; for, in spite of Reuss, Hupfeld, and Hitzig, Psa 122:1., so far as the style is concerned, are manifestly a retrospect.