Fifteen of the psalms (Psalms 120-134) in the Bible are songs of ascents (known as songs of degrees in the King James Version)  It's reputed that they were sang as pilgrims ascended to Jerusalem for pilgrimages to to the three great Jewish feasts _{Deut 16:16}.  As the journey progressed, they sang more of the psalm.

The songs of ascents, by and enlarge, are extremely joyous, and Psalm 133 is probably one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible.  They are driven by a determination by the psalmist to press on, and to arrive at the place in which he or she could join together with others to honour God, once they arrived at the festival.

By the same token, we press on. Our personal circumstances can place us in all manner of difficulties that only we as individuals and God himself appreciate the depths of, but those who wrote the songs of ascents were fixed in their determination to gather together to praise and worship the Living God.  Even in his most desperate moment of despair, Job said:

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him _{Job 13:15},

although at the time he was confused and exasperated about why he was experiencing such huge difficulties.

Just as in Job's era, there are no shortage of people who have ready answers for our difficulties. Although it's right to use wisdom in the manner in which we conduct our lives, sometimes God takes us through experiences within which we simply have to be determined to honour God no matter what, whether we understand our circumstances or not. Sometimes we are told that if we do one thing, God will immediately do another, but the trouble with that is that it treats the Living God as he's a vending machine, not the sovereign Lord of the universe. 

God certainly does honour his promises towards us,

For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. _{2 Corinthians 1:20}

but sometimes we go through experiences in which it takes time to arrive at the realisation of God's promises .

The songs of ascents are short and sweet:

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore _{Psalm 121}

The songs of ascent are simple, and of a determination to gather together and worship the Living God:

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.
Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. _{Psalm 122:1-2}

Put another way: "onwards and upwards"