“…Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for Myself, to put My name there” (1 Ki 11:36).
This is the city with many names—Zion (“Conspicuous”), Jerusalem (“the City of Peace”), Hephzibah (“My delight is in her”), Ariel (“Lion of God”), and here simply “the city of our God” and “His holy mountain” (Ps 48:1). It also has had many conquerors—Babylonians, Ptolemies, Seleucids, Romans, Byzantines, Persians, Seljuks, Crusaders, Mongols, Turks, British, and others have trodden her streets (see vv 4-7). Yet she is unlike other great cities. She sits by no harbor or on any great waterway. Her role in history dwarfs her economic or strategic importance. Why is Jerusalem still in the news? It isn’t just a battlefield between Muslims and Jews. It is the scene of cosmic war between heaven and hell. It’s the only place on earth where God saw fit to place His name, the only city where He has had a local address. It could be written of “The city of the great King” that “God is in her palaces; He is known as her refuge” (vv 2-3). It saw the Son of God executed, buried, raised, and exalted to God’s right hand. And here the Holy Spirit came to empower the Church for the greatest rescue operation in history. In her origin, she was the focal center of God’s plans. “Thus says the Lord God: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her’” (Ezk 5:5). At the time of the incarnation, she became the salvation center of planet earth. At present, she is the crisis center of the world. The Lord says, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about” (Zech 12:2, KJV). But ultimately she will be the glory center of the whole universe. “As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it forever” (Ps 48:8).