James 5:13

5:12-18 The sin of swearing is condemned; but how many make light of common profane swearing! Such swearing expressly throws contempt upon God's name and authority. This sin brings neither gain, nor pleasure, nor reputation, but is showing enmity to God without occasion and without advantage It shows a man to be an enemy to God, however he pretends to call himself by his name, or sometimes joins in acts of worship. But the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. In a day of affliction nothing is more seasonable than prayer. The spirit is then most humble, and the heart is broken and tender. It is necessary to exercise faith and hope under afflictions; and prayer is the appointed means for obtaining and increasing these graces. Observe, that the saving of the sick is not ascribed to the anointing with oil, but to prayer. In a time of sickness it is not cold and formal prayer that is effectual, but the prayer of faith. The great thing we should beg of God for ourselves and others in the time of sickness is, the pardon of sin. Let nothing be done to encourage any to delay, under the mistaken fancy that a confession, a prayer, a minister's absolution and exhortation, or the sacrament, will set all right at last, where the duties of a godly life have been disregarded. To acknowledge our faults to each other, will tend greatly to peace and brotherly love.

James 5:13. Is any among you afflicted? let him pray — That he may be supported under his affliction, so as to be enabled to bear it with patience and resignation to the divine will, and find it to be sanctified to him, and made the means, as of exercising, so also of increasing his grace, and of purifying him as gold and silver are purified in the furnace. Is any merry? — Is any in health, and in a prosperous condition, and under no peculiar trial; let him sing psalms — Let him give thanks to God, and express his thankfulness by singing psalms or hymns of praise. The purport of the verse is, that, as believers in Christ, we ought to employ ourselves in such private religious exercises as are suitable to our present circumstances and frame of mind. “When rendered cheerful by contemplating the manifestations which God hath made of his perfections in the works of creation, providence, and redemption, or by any blessing bestowed on ourselves, we are to express our joy, not by drinking, and singing profane, lewd songs, but by hymns of praise and thanksgivings offered to God for all his mercies, Ephesians 5:18-19 . On the other hand, when afflicted, we are to pray; that being the best means of producing in ourselves patience and resignation.

But as the precept concerning our singing psalms, when cheerful, does not imply that we are not to pray then; so the precept concerning prayer in affliction, does not imply that we are not to express our joy in suffering according to the will of God, by singing psalms or hymns, as Paul and Silas did in the jail at Philippi.” — Macknight.

Is afflicted (κακοπαθεῖ) See on the kindred word κακοπάθεια, suffering, James 5:10. Only here and 2 Timothy 2:3, 2 Timothy 2:9; 2 Timothy 4:5. Let him sing psalms (ψαλλέτω) The word means, primarily, to pluck or twitch. Hence of the sharp twang on a bowstring or harp-string, and so to play upon a stringed instrument. Our word psalm, derived from this, is, properly, a tune played upon a stringed instrument. The verb, however, is used in the New Testament of singing praise generally. See 1 Corinthians 14:15; Romans 15:9.

Jam 5:13 . Προσευχέσθω · ψαλλέτω , let him pray; let him sing psalms ) It is allowable also to sing psalms in adversity, and to pray in prosperity: but in adversity the mind in general is less able to endure the singing of psalms ; and that which the mind endures ought rather to be done. They were especially accustomed to do this in public in the assembly of the faithful; as the antithesis shows, let him call for , as applied to the sick: Jam 5:14 .

Is any among you afflicted? either troubled or afflicted in mind, as appears by the opposite being merry, or more generally afflicted any way. Not that we need not pray at other times, but when under afflictions God calls us more especially to it, and our own necessities put us upon it. Let him pray; for support, patience, sanctification of afflictions, &c. Is any merry? let him sing psalms; express his mirth in a holy manner, by praising God with psalms or spiritual songs for mercies received from him, 1 Corinthians 14:15 Ephesians 5:19 ; and so keep up his spiritual mirth by a spiritual exercise, lest his cheerfulness degenerate into vanity and frothiness.

Verses 13-20. - Exhortations with respect to practical conduct in health and sickness. Verse 13. - (1) Is any among you suffering? let him pray. (2) Is any cheerful? let him sing praise. Prayer in the narrower sense of petition is rather for sufferers, who need to have their wants supplied and their sorrows removed. Praise, the highest form of prayer, is to spring up from the grateful heart of the cheerful. Ψάλλειν (cf. Romans 15:9 ; 1 Corinthians 14:15 ; Ephesians 5:19 ). James 5:13

(13) We now pass on to advice of different kinds—to the heavy-laden or light-hearted, to the suffering and afflicted. Prayer is to be the refuge of one, praise the safeguard of another; the whole life is to revolve, as it were, around the throne of God, whether in the night of grief or day of joy. Let him pray.—No worthier comment can be found than Montgomery’s hymn— “Prayer is the burden of a sigh, The falling of a tear, The upward glancing of an eye, When none but God is near.” Long petitions, or many, cannot be always made; mind and body may be too weak and ill; but ejaculations—“Arrows of the Lord’s deliverance,” as Augustine called them, “shot out with a sudden quickness”—these are ever in the power of the beleaguered Christian. And— “More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of.” Let him sing.—The word originally applied to instrumental music, the Eastern accompaniment of “psalms.” Praise, like prayer, ought to be individual as well as congregational. Hymns might be used by all in their devotions, and could not fail to be a blessing; while for those who have God’s great gift of music, it were surely better to sing—as the Apostle urges—than to say. There is a sadness latent in the most jubilant of earthly tunes, but not so with the heavenly; and quiring angels do not scorn to catch our humblest notes, and weave them in their endless song, if they be raised in thankfulness to Him Whom they and all creation praise.

13–16. Affliction—Sickness—Confession 13 . Is any among you afflicted, let him pray …] The precepts point to the principle that worship is the truest and best expression of both sorrow and joy. In affliction men are not to groan or complain against others, or murmur against God, but to pray for help and strength and wisdom. When they are “merry” (better, of good cheer ) they are not to indulge in riotous or boastful mirth, but to “sing psalms.” The verb is used by St Paul ( Romans 15:9 ; 1 Corinthians 14:15 ; Ephesians 5:19 ). Primarily it was used of instrumental string music, but, as in the word “Psalm,” had been transferred to the words of which that music was the natural accompaniment. It is, perhaps, specially characteristic of St James that he contemplates what we may call the individual use of such music as well as the congregational, as a help to the spiritual life. We are reminded of two memorable instances of this employment in the lives of George Herbert and Milton. Compare also Hooker’s grand words on the power of Psalmody and Music ( Eccl. Pol. v. 38).

Jam 5:13 . κακοπαθεῖ : See note on Jam 5:10 ; it refers perhaps rather to mental worry or distress, while ἀσθενεῖ refers to some specific bodily ailment.— εὐθυμεῖ : only found elsewhere in Acts 27:22 ; Acts 27:25 in the N.T.— ψαλλέτω : refers both to playing on a stringed instrument ( Sir 9:4 ) and to singing ( Ephesians 5:19 ), and is also used of singing with the spirit ( 1 Corinthians 14:15 ).