This psalm is entitled simply “A Song of Degrees.” See the Introduction to Psalms 120:1-7. There can be no reasonable doubt as to the occasion on which it was composed, for it bears internal evidence of having been composed with reference to the return from Babylon. It may have been designed to be sung as the returning captives went up to Jerusalem, but was more probably composed subsequently to that event, as designed to keep it in remembrance. It was evidently, however, written not long after the return, and by someone who had been personally interested in it, for the author manifestly, in describing the feelings of the people Psalms 126:1-2, speaks of himself as one of them, or as participating in those feelings which they had when the exile was closed, and when they returned to their own land. Who the author was, it is in vain now to conjecture.
It is evident from the psalm Psalms 126:5, that, when it was composed, there was still some trouble - something that might be called a “captivity,” from which the psalmist prays that they might be delivered; and the object of the psalm would seem to be in part, in that trial to find encouragement from the former interposition of God in their case. As he had “turned the captivity of Zion,” as he had filled their “mouth with laughter,” so the psalmist prays that he would again interpose in similar circumstances, and renew his goodness. It is, of course, now impossible to determine precisely to what this refers. It may be, as Rosenmuller supposes, to a portion of the people who remained in exile; or it may be to some other captivity or danger to which they were exposed after their return. The psalmist, however, expresses entire confidence that there would be such interposition, and that, though then in trouble, they would have joy, such as the farmer has who goes forth sowing his seed with weeping, and who comes with joy in the harvest, bearing his sheaves with him, Psalms 126:5-6.