In Psalm 120 we find the first of a number of 15 psalms that are usually referred to as, “The Songs of Degrees.” They are also known as “The Songs of the Steps,” or very simply, “The Songs of Going Up.”
Some believe that the first and original usage of the psalms was in connection with David “bringing up” again the Ark of the Lord from Kirjath-jearim to Obed-edom after it had been captured in the battle with the Philistines.
Still others see a link between the number of the psalms being fifteen and the fifteen “steps” of the Temple that the priests had to ascend to begin their ministrations before the Lord. The psalms, then, it is held, would have been sung in turn – one on each step – by the ascending priest.
A more general and widespread use of the psalms of degrees would have been the use made of them by the Pilgrims in Israel “going up” to the three great feasts each year in the city of Jerusalem: so, the 122nd -
“I joy’d when to the house of God, Go up, they said to me.”
It seems very appropriate, and a telling lesson for any of us, that the first of these psalms of degrees should call on the Lord for His help with regard to the matter of the “tongue.” The cry is at least three-fold. No doubt, as the pilgrims set off on their holy exercise of going up to Jerusalem for the feasts, they would have come under a fair measure of rebuke or slander from those who had no time for such things. A person may be “fanatical” about many things and yet escape the world’s censure, but any endeavour to move “up to the house of his God,” can produce all kinds of abuse and attack. So, the Lord’s help is sought for deliverance from "lying lips."
But then, the sincere pilgrim would realise that he is not only in danger of lying lips “around” him, but a careless tongue within him! Once he joined that happy band of pilgrims bound for Jerusalem, how much he would need a “watchman” to guard the door of his own mouth; and so, his prayer was appropriate in that, as well. And finally, since it was the “praise of God” that he was going up to perform, how much he needed the Lord to “tune his lips” for such a high calling and task.