Charles Ellicott Commentary James 5:13

"Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise." — James 5:13 (ASV)

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 always be made; mind and body may be too weak and ill. But brief, fervent prayers—“Arrows of the Lord’s deliverance,” as Augustine called them, “shot out with a sudden quickness”—these are always 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 would surely be 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 choiring angels do not scorn to catch our humblest notes and weave them in their endless song, if they are raised in thankfulness to Him Whom they and all creation praise.