The first collection is Psalms 107-118...
The first collection is Psalms 107-118, and this is appropriate for use in the first of the annual festivals mentioned in the Torah (Leviticus 23:5-14), Passover and Unleavened Bread, which comes in the seventh month (or the first Torah month). Psalm 119 is really a collection of Psalms in itself and is appropriate for the second festival mentioned (Leviticus 23:15-22), Pentecost, which comes in the ninth month and is a memorial of the giving of the Torah or law to Moses.
This festival has been retained as Ramadhan in Islamic tradition. The third collection is .Psalms 120-134. Each one of these Psalms bears the title in Hebrew, `A Song of Pilgrimage'. But if we look at the list in Leviticus, this festival is missing. The next festival in the list is Trumpets and Atonement (Leviticus 23:23-32), and this fits the next collection of Psalms, that is, Psalms 135-145.
This festival comes during the first ten days of the first month (the seventh Torah month), and has been preserved as the Ashura of Muharrem in Islamic tradition. The final group of Psalms is Psalms 146-150. Each of these Psalms has the title `Hallelujah', and is appropriate to the last festival, the feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus 23:33-37. This is a feast of thanksgiving in the third quarter of the first month.
The structure of the book of Psalms thus reveals that there is a festival of pilgrimage sometime after the ninth month and sometime before the first month. A year-end pilgrimage and sacrifice at the house of God is thus clearly a Bible practice from ancient times. This is apparently the pilgrimage to which Jesus was referring in Matthew six. Although not all of the many details of Islamic pilgrimage appear in the Bible, the primary features do occur.
The timing of the pilgrimage is the same for the Bible and in Islam. The features of sacrifice, prayer and circumambulation are primary in both the Bible and Islam. The only contrasting detail is the place of pilgrimage, which is Mecca in Islam. But the place of pilgrimage in the Bible was moveable at an early stage, and was prophesied by Jesus himself to be someday moved from Jerusalem to another place. In sum, Islamic pilgrimage is basically the same as that of the Bible. Previous…