Temple Steps: Approaching God with Reverence and Humility
Updated: Oct 6
By John W. Moore
Few places in Jerusalem put your feet in the actual place where Jesus once stood, as the southern steps do. Nearly every time I visit, I see Christian groups doing the same thing. People slow down. They look at their feet. Someone opens a Bible to the Psalms of Ascent and reads aloud. For a few quiet minutes, a modern tour group reenacts what many believe happened some two thousand years ago, as Jewish worshippers ascended these steps on their way to the inner court and ultimately to the place of sacrifice.
Place yourselves in their sandals. Reverently walk up these steps, emerge into the court of the gentiles, and, in humility, pass through one of several entrances into the court of the women. After waiting patiently, it is finally your turn to walk through the Nicanor doors and into the court of the Israelites, where your sacrificial offering will be given.
The air is thick with the odor of blood and smoke as you watch numerous animals and birds being led to slaughter. If offering a lamb, you gently give it to the priests, who take it to the priestly court and into an area reserved for sacrificial preparation. With its legs bound and facing west, its head is guided through a metal restraining ring. A sharpened knife is placed at its throat, and your innocent lamb is put to death. Its blood is sprinkled on the horns of the altar, and its body is burned as the ransom price for sin.
It was a graphic, bloody affair, but wrongdoing had to be punished, and the pure, innocent animal you had purchased and carried to the court was sacrificed on your behalf. Hearing the bleating of animals at the slaughter and the priest singing songs of redemption nearby reinforced the doctrine of God’s relentless pursuit to purify your soul and reconcile you to His loving arms. The aroma of seared flesh and the sweet scent of burning incense filled the air, etching the images and the message into your mind forever. You joyfully leave the courts in full assurance of salvation, knowing that God is your redeemer and friend.
If you had been a Jew living in the first century, the events described above would have been all too familiar. Yet those heart-piercing moments were merely the climax of a day filled with anticipation, family gatherings, and a wide range of experiences that began long before you entered the Temple.
A PILGRIMS’S JOURNEY
When Jews arrived in Jerusalem for one of the three mandatory festivals of Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost), or Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), they often began their celebration and day of worship at the Pool of Siloam, at the southernmost edge of the lower city of David. Here, worshippers might cleanse themselves in this massive water reservoir and ritual cleansing pool, using water that had descended from the famous spring of Gihon. During the Feast of Tabernacles, pilgrim worshippers might have witnessed priests drawing water from the same pool for a libation to be poured out on the altar of sacrifice at the Temple.
Leaving the pool, joyous pilgrims would make the ½-mile climb up the steep slope toward the temple. Their pilgrimage carried them along the carefully crafted limestone pavers of a street called “pilgrims’ way.” Singing as they walked, they would often stop to sell a clay jar, food, or a trinket to raise money for the temple tax or to purchase a sacrifice.
With money in hand, they continued their rapid ascent toward the massive 35-acre temple complex, always ahead of them and easily in view. Along the way, they were joined by thousands of excited worshippers, and they could hear the boisterous cacophony of celebration reverberating down the busy streets of a city bursting at the seams. Those sounds included singing, the shofar's trumpeting, and high-pitched celebratory yelps, similar to what is still heard near the Western Wall today during a Bar Mitzvah or at the end of Sukkot (Feast of the Tabernacles).
The Temple to which they journeyed had been enlarged by King Herod the Great around 20 B.C. His massive renovation of this sacred precinct included beautiful entry and exit points. At the southwestern corner stood a monumental staircase, supported by a massive 50-foot-wide stone arch, leading to the Royal Stoa perched high above the southern entrance. Along the base of the southern wall were the double and triple gates. Nearby were multiple Jewish baptisteries (i.e., mikvaot), where many would stop to ritually immerse themselves for ceremonial cleansing.
THE SOUTHERN STEPS
Once properly purified, worshippers would walk up a series of beautiful stone steps carved from the bedrock where the Temple foundation had been laid. Some call these the “Teaching Steps” because of the broad, theater-like staircase, 210 feet wide, that leads up to the familiar double-gate entrance. Some argue that rabbis and teachers used these steps as a convenient and appropriate place to stand while providing instruction in the law or on proper decorum for entering God’s sacred house.
The steps appear to serve another function as well. Designed with alternating, uneven widths, they featured a pattern of narrow, wide, narrow, and wide steps. This alternating pattern required pilgrims to look down as they approached the Temple, apparently to encourage worshippers to walk slowly, deliberately, and prayerfully. Rather than rushing and being inattentive, the steps likely fostered contemplation, humility, and reverence as pilgrims approached God’s holy house.
After several personal visits to these historic steps, I grew increasingly intrigued by the apparent intent behind their design. Approaching God in humility and reverence was not only required by the Law but also seemed to be a concern of the Temple’s architect. This caught my attention and piqued my curiosity. Was this the setting for the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector who “went UP into the Temple to pray” (emphasis mine; Luke 18:10)? Jesus said the Pharisee exalted himself, but the tax collector was unwilling even to look up. He humbled himself before the Lord and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
AM I THE PHARISEE OR THE PUBLICAN?
Whether the setting of this parable was here or elsewhere at the Temple, the southern steps became the perfect place to reflect on my attitude toward others and how I approach God in worship. Do I approach Him in humility and love? Am I deliberate and serious in worship? Am I always reverent and thoughtful? Or do I hurry to worship, giving little thought to my attitude and demeanor? Am I high-minded and prideful about my appearance at worship, all the while judging others for theirs? Have I condemned others for their faults while overlooking my own? I am ashamed to say that at times I have acted more like the Pharisee than the tax collector.
Jesus condemns this behavior not only in this parable but also in the strong language of passages such as Mark 7:20-23 and Luke 14:7-11. He also warns against vain worship and our focus on outward appearance at the expense of the weightier matters of the law, such as justice, faith, and mercy (Matthew 23:23-28). Praise be to God, however, for His mercy when we acknowledge these sins and turn to Him for forgiveness.
How we approach God and the demeanor we show others should never be taken lightly. The entrances and steps at the Temple were no doubt intended to provoke serious thought on the subject. However, their stately appearance and varied widths served another purpose as well.
PSALMS OF ASCENT
The 210-foot-wide area of the Southern Steps would not only accommodate large crowds, but the wider steps would also provide a landing where worshippers could stop, as visitors often do today, to recite the Old Testament Psalms of Ascent.
Found in Psalms 120-134, these poignant hymns of praise are sometimes called the Psalms of Ascent, a set of 15 Psalms that many scholars believe worshippers sang as they ascended the hill of Zion. Others believe the Psalms of Ascent refer to musical notations indicating that the notes were to rise in succession by gradual tonal degrees.
Still others believe Jewish pilgrims sang the Psalms of Ascent as they traveled from the lower elevations of the Bible lands to Jerusalem during the annual feasts. Another tradition holds that priests sang them at each of the Temple's fifteen steps, which led from the Court of the Women into the Court of Israel. A popular view among visiting tourists is that they were sung at each landing along the southern steps mentioned above.
Wherever the Psalms of Ascent were sung, I can easily imagine Jewish families joyfully singing them as they made their way to God’s holy house of worship. Despite the pride they may have felt in their glorious, stately temple, each Psalm was intended to direct a person’s thoughts toward God himself, not toward a building or place of worship.
Throughout these Psalms of Ascent, the Lord’s name appears 53 times, and an additional forty-five pronouns refer to Him. They were meant to glorify God, emphasize what He provides, how He worked in history, and how one should therefore live in response. As worshippers ascended to the Temple, the steps were meant to slow them down, and the Psalms were designed to glorify God.
Like the Jews who sang these psalms of ascent on their journey to the temple, we can sing them today as we prepare to worship God each Sunday, gathering to remember our Passover lamb. They are deeply theocentric and should evoke in everyone a desire to worship and praise God throughout life, especially on our pilgrimage to His eternal home.
The final phrase of this collection of Psalms ends with the Lord “made heaven and earth” (134:3). In this one verse, we are reminded of God’s sovereign reign and dominion. The majestic, complex elements of the natural world, with all its grandeur, beauty, and power, are the result of an all-powerful, all-wise God. All creation owes its existence to the creative hand of a mighty and holy being who is anterior to—and yet intimately involved in—the world in which we live.
Therefore, let us come before His presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout aloud to the God of our salvation. And as we remember the steps leading to the Temple, may we always approach God in humility. Let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. “For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:6).
FURTHER STUDY
The Southern Steps were the pilgrims’ front door to the Temple. Three times a year the Law of Moses called every Jewish man to “appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses” for the Feasts of Unleavened Bread, Weeks (Pentecost), and Booths (Deuteronomy 16:16). Pilgrims coming from the lower city of David, and from as far off as the Diaspora, would arrive here.
Along the southern wall stood two sets of gates: The Double Gate (to the west) was reached by a broad staircase about 210 feet wide. Half of its original Herodian lintel and relieving arch are still visible today. The Triple Gate (to the east), reached by a smaller stairway about 50 feet wide.
The Mishnah calls these southern entrances the Huldah Gates, after the prophetess who counseled King Josiah (2 Kings 22:14). Both opened into tunnels that climbed beneath the Royal Stoa and emerged onto the Temple platform. Inside the Double Gate tunnel, pilgrims passed stone columns and domed ceilings carved with floral and geometric designs. It was an entrance built to impress.
Many of the steps were cut directly into the bedrock, and some have survived since the first century. Others have been restored. Look closely, and you’ll notice the steps aren’t uniform. They alternate between narrow and wide, and this deliberate pattern forces you to watch your feet, and slow down.
Some call these the “Teaching Steps.” The broad, theater-like staircase would have made a natural place for rabbis and teachers to stand and give instruction in the Law, or in how to conduct yourself before entering God’s house. The wide steps also gave crowds room to pause, as visitors still do today, to pray or recite a psalm.
Mikva’ot (Ritual Baths)
In the area of the Southern Steps, archaeologists have found dozens of mikvaot, the stepped ritual baths Jews used to purify themselves before entering the sacred courts. More than fifty have been uncovered in the area.
Most of what we know comes from the excavations Benjamin Mazar began in 1968, just south of the Temple Mount, and continued for ten years. Ronny Reich resumed the work in the 1990s. Because digging on the Mount itself isn’t allowed, these southern excavations (today the Jerusalem Archaeological Park) are among the best windows we have into the Temple Jesus knew.
That’s what makes this place so special. Most so-called holy sites in Jerusalem are marked by later churches or traditions, and we can only say an event happened “somewhere around here.” The Southern Steps are different. Jesus came up to Jerusalem for the feasts throughout His life, and this was the main entrance for those coming up from the lower city. It’s hard to imagine He never walked this stairway. Standing there, you are very likely standing where He stood.
The Psalms of Ascent and Their Focus on God
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem sits on a hill nearly 2,500 feet above sea level and is surrounded by valleys. The so-called “Songs of Ascent” in Psalms 120–134 (sometimes called the “Psalms of Degrees”) are a group of fifteen psalms that many scholars believe Jews sang on their pilgrimages from the lower elevations of the Bible lands, quite literally, up to Jerusalem. Others believe the “ascending” is a musical reference to notes that rose by degrees with each successive psalm, an idea first proposed by the Hebrew scholar William Gesenius. Another tradition suggests the Levites sang these psalms at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple during the night of the fifteenth of Tishri.
The Mishnah preserves a tradition that these fifteen psalms were sung on the fifteen steps in the Court of the Women, the steps leading up to the Court of Israel: “On the fifteen steps… corresponding with the fifteen songs of degrees, stood the Levites… and sang” (m. Sukkah 5:4). Nancy deClaissé-Walford notes that the Songs of Ascent were “traditionally recited at the Feast of Tabernacles (Booths or Sukkoth) in the Autumn of the year.” She adds that “the Feast of Tabernacles commemorates God’s care for the Israelites during the time of Israel’s wilderness wanderings, reinforcing the ‘pilgrimage’ theme of the Songs of Ascents.”
Whatever their original purpose, these psalms were surely meant to focus the pilgrims’ minds on why they were going to Jerusalem and to prepare their hearts to worship God as they approached His sacred mount.
Today, a favorite custom is to read one psalm (or its first verse) at each wide landing of the Southern Steps, climbing two steps between readings. We can’t say for certain that pilgrims did this here. But these were their traveling songs, and they were headed for this very stairway. “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD’” (Psalm 122:1). “Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!” (122:2).
With all of this in mind, I can easily imagine Jewish families singing these psalms as they traveled upward to the Temple. The psalms were designed to remind God’s people of who He is, what He does, what He provides, and how they should live in response. Those truths about God must have motivated them on their journey to His holy hill, and they can motivate us today. These psalms can inspire us when we are weary from life’s journey or discouraged. Above all, they keep us focused on God as we come into His presence to worship the One from whom all blessings flow (cf. James 1:17).
The songs weren’t really about the building. When asked to write a chapter for Bear Valley Bible Institute’s annual lectureship book, I was assigned 7 of the Psalms of Ascent from Psalms 128–134. In each of those Psalms I found that God stands at the center of each. In just those seven Psalms, “the LORD” appears 28 times, with 35 more pronouns referring to Him. Across all fifteen of the Psalms of Ascent, His name appears 53 times. As the pilgrims climbed, they sang that God blesses (128), avenges (129), forgives (130), comforts (131), remembers (132), unites (133), and reigns as the One “who made heaven and earth” (134:3). What drew them up the hill was God Himself.
Clean Hands and a Pure Heart
The mikvaot at the foot of the steps echo an older question: “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:3–4). Pilgrims washed before they went up. The water could cleanse the body, but the psalms kept reminding them that God looked at the heart.
Pentecost and the Church
When the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost, Jerusalem was full of pilgrims for the Feast of Weeks (Acts 2:1–11). Peter preached, and “that day there were added about three thousand souls” who were baptized (Acts 2:41). Where do you immerse three thousand people in a city on a hill? The many mikvaot around the Southern Steps would have been a natural place, just outside the Temple where the crowds had gathered.
Soon after, Peter and John healed a lame man at the gate called Beautiful (Acts 3:1–10). Some have suggested he begged somewhere along these steps or on the street above them, where the crowds heading to worship were largest.
Closing Thoughts
The Psalms of Ascent begin with a pilgrim looking up: “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1–2). They conclude with the same Creator: “May the LORD bless you from Zion, He who made heaven and earth” (134:3).
We no longer go up to Herod’s Temple. We “have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22). Yet the lessons of those old stone steps still hold. Come slowly. Come clean. Come together. Above all, come humbly, like the man who could only say, “God, be merciful to me.” “Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:6–7). “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (1 Peter 5:6).
By John W. Moore
WORKS CITED AND RESOURCES CONSULTED
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__________ The Quest: Revealing the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Carta, Jerusalem, 2006.
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Walford, Nancy L. deClaissé. “An examination of the Songs of Ascents and Psalm 119 in 11QPsa”.https://www.academia.edu.
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