Who would have ever thought to use stairs as a memory-trigger? At the southern edge of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, a 200-foot wide flight of stairs represents both original and restored steps from the Second Temple period.
Millions of sandals (including Jesus’) shuffled up these steps in antiquity as Jewish pilgrims came from all Israel and the Diaspora to worship the Lord for the annual feasts.
Some suggest the pilgrims sang the Psalms of Ascent on these steps. If so, the place brought to mind critical themes.
The place echoes of our need to be reminded of what we already know.
Few places in Jerusalem give the sense of the Second Temple period like the Southern Steps excavations at the Jerusalem Archaeological Park.
In fact, because excavation on the Temple Mount itself is prohibited, this area immediately south of the mount offers important archaeology to help unpack the history of the Temple Mount during the first century.
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(Slideshow pics courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.)
Three times a year worshippers would enter the Temple from these steps, after a customary cleansing in the nearby ritual baths, or mikvot.
God required these pilgrimages, as written by the hand of Moses:
Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed. —Deuteronomy 16:16
Over the years, a songbook developed that served as the pilgrims’ traveling songs. Psalms 120-134 all bear the superscription, “A Psalm of Ascents.” These are the songs the Jews sang as they ascended to Jerusalem every year for their feasts.
However, the Mishnah notes that these fifteen psalms were sung by the priests who stood not on the Southern Steps, but on the fifteen steps from the Court of the Women ascending to the Court of Israel:
On the fifteen steps which led into the women’s court, corresponding with the fifteen songs of degrees, stood the Levites, with their musical instruments, and sang. — m. Sukkah 5:4-5
Read Numbers 10:10; Philippians 3:1; 2 Peter 1:13; 3:1.
Think about Christmas carols and patriotic songs like, “God Bless America.” Sung on holidays, these tunes are familiar to all and stir up critical reminders of basic life themes.
The first-century Jewish culture recognized the necessity of reminders and repetition—the need of rehearsing truth when the world around them countered God’s Word at every step. The Psalms of Ascent that the pilgrims of old would recite from memory several times a years served as reminders of faith, forgiveness, family, children, peace, hope, brotherhood, sacrifice, and right attitudes toward God and people.
What was true then remains true for us:
Without simple reminders, we would forget essential truths. (Tweet that.)
Tell me what you think: Do you have any memory triggers to remind you of God’s Word? To leave a comment, just click here.
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