GRADUAL PSALMS. - Fifteen Psalms (119–33 according to the Vulgate; 120–34 according to the Hebrew) forming a short collection of their own, inserted into the fifth book of the Psalter. The designation derives from the Latin translation (canticum graduum) of the title šir hamma'ālōth, which should rather be translated “song of ascents” or “ascensions.”
Thus far, no certain explanation of the strange expression has been proposed that is accepted by all. Some, considering the use of the Hebrew verbal root to describe the return from exile, hold that the G. P. were composed or sung on this auspicious occasion. Others see in the term a reference to the practice of singing them in the Temple upon the “steps” leading from the court of the women to that of the Israelites. Some modern scholars, moreover, have wished to discern in the title an indication of the poetic genre of the songs, in which there would be a “gradation” or “progressive concatenation” of ideas. The most probable hypothesis remains that which explains the name as a reference to the custom of singing these Psalms during the annual pilgrimages, while the Israelites “went up” to Jerusalem or made their way to the Temple hill.