Jerusalem: 

Jerusalem was originally was a Jebusite city known as Salem.  It first appears in the story of Abraham giving a tithe to Melchizedek the priest of "The God most High" (Genesis 12:18-20).  A name Abraham knew to be the God of all his promises.  in control of theCanaanites.    When Joshua was tricked into a peace agreement with the Gibeonites, Five kings formed a coalition against them and Joshua came to their rescue praying God give them more sunlight for the battle.  The king of Salem (Jerusalem) was one of those five kings (Joshua 10:1-5).  We learn two things from Judges 1:15, "Jerusalem was in the territory of Benjamin and they were unable to take the city Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem."  

 

     It was not until the time of David Jerusalem came into the control of Israel.  He was king over the tribe of Judah.  In an attempt to be seen as "everyones king" he took for his people the city they had yet been able to conquer, Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:5-7).  It was a brilliant move of unification.  From this moment forward Jerusalem was the nations capitol and David was their king.  The small finger like hill was renamed "The city of David" and he built his palace on the northern end.  Yet there still was no place for the Arc of God.  

 

     To this point is had rested in Shilo and after being returned by the Philistines, it rested in the home of a priestly family for twenty years (1 Samuel 7:1).  King David was dissatisfied with this reality and determined to bring the ark and dwelling of God to the capitol.  Although the western world claims a separation of church and state, the middle east sees them as inseparable.  This is why the northern kingdom build temples in Bethel and Dan.  If they did not , the people would have reunified with their place of worship.  In  2 Samuel 24:18-25 David purchases a plot of land adjacent to the  north of the city of David.  It was a threshing floor at the time.  This is significant because it will later be the location of the temple Solomon will build in 1 Kings 6.

This plot of land had and will have a long history.  This is none other than "Mount Moriah", the location where Abraham sought to offer up Isaac (Genesis 22).  Jerusalem technically is on a high mountain range but poorly situated as a hill in a bowl surrounded by slightly higher elevated ridges the Psalmists depicts this in song   "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever. (Ps. 125:2).  The reason this location was chosen is because of the one thing no city can live without, water.  A spring known as Gihon was located on the mid eastern edge of the city of David.  The Psalmist further sang about this location in Psalm 48:1-2:  Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.  Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. The beauty of the city is the Temple is at its north and any situation they faced, they faced with the help of God.  Both Psalm 121 & 122 reflect the truth of the temples significance to Jerusalems location and the peoples situations as they arose.   The history of this city is too vast to detail all of it here, but this is the overview of how the Jebusite city of Salem became known as the Jewish capitol Jerusalem.

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Pool of Siloam:

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Stairs of Ascent:

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Southern End of the Temple:

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Wohl Museum (High Priest Mansions):

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 Wailing Wall:

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