1 [Song Psalm Of the sons of Korah] Great is Yahweh and most worthy of praise in the city of our God, the holy mountain,
2 towering in beauty, the joy of the whole world: Mount Zion in the heart of the north, the settlement of the great king;
3 God himself among its palaces has proved himself its bulwark.
4 For look, kings made alliance, together they advanced;
5 without a second glance, when they saw, they panicked and fled away.
6 Trembling seized them on the spot, pains like those of a woman in labour;
7 it was the east wind, that wrecker of ships from Tarshish.
8 What we had heard we saw for ourselves in the city of our God, in the city of Yahweh Sabaoth, which God has established for ever.
9 We reflect on your faithful love, God, in your temple!
10 Both your name and your praise, God, are over the whole wide world. Your right hand is full of saving justice,
11 Mount Zion rejoices, the daughters of Judah delight because of your saving justice.
12 Go round Zion, walk right through her, count her bastions,
13 admire her walls, examine her palaces, to tell future generations
14 that such is God; our God for ever and ever, he is our guide!

-Psalm 48, New Jerusalem Bible

Jerusalem is a special city, unlike any other. This was the place where God chose for His holy presence, dwelling in the Holy of Holies, in the Temple. Israel was the LORD’s portion among the Gentiles until the coming of Jesus the Messiah, when God moved to reclaim the nations from the sons of God. Jerusalem was His city, the Mount of Assembly of His divine council.

With the coming of the Spirit following the resurrection, God’s presence dwells in His human temples, believers in His Son, Jesus the Messiah. The Jerusalem Temple was destroyed in 70 AD as a sign that the Old Covenant had given way to the new and as a judgment upon the leadership of the nation for rejecting their King. The King promised that He would not return until they learned to say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD” (Matt 23:39): in other words, until the nation acknowledges that Jesus is the Messiah.

However, Jerusalem has never been forgotten. Jerusalem is precious in the eyes of the LORD. I maintain, the restoration of Jerusalem to Israeli control is surely a sign that the LORD has not forgotten His promises to Israel. For He is good; His love endures forever (1 Chron 16:34).

Meanwhile, the forces of darkness maintain desolation over the Temple Mount. They forbid Jews and Christians to pray on the summit, and their abominable declarations in the Dome of the Rock stand over the site where the Ark of the Covenant may once have rested. But they do not have the last word.

How you have fallen from heaven,
    morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
    you who once laid low the nations!
You said in your heart,
    “I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
    above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
    on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.

-Is 14:12-13, NIV