Prayer and Praise as a Medicine
C. Jerdan James 5:13-15 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. The previous exhortation was a dissuasive against profane swearing. In these verses the apostle suggests that the right use of the Divine Name is reverently to call upon it in all time of our tribulation, and in all time of our wealth. The most healthful relief for a heart surcharged with deep emotion is to engage in religious worship. James refers here to three different cases. I. THE CASE OF THE AFFLICTED. (Ver. 13.) The believer must not allow his trials to exasperate him. Instead of swearing over them, he should pray over them. That is a graceless heart which, when under the rod, challenges God's sovereignty, or impugns his justice, or distrusts his goodness, or arraigns his wisdom. The child of God prays always, because he loves prayer; and especially when under trial, because then he has special need of it. He prays for a spirit of filial submission; for the improvement of his chastisement; and for the removal of it, if the Lord will. And only those who have proved the efficacy of prayer know how efficacious it is. Even to tell God of our trials helps to alleviate them. Prayer brings the soul near to him who bears upon his loving heart the burden of his people's sorrows. As we pray, our cares and trials pass into the Divine breast, and we are made of one wilt with our Father. But, besides this, our petitions will be directly and substantially answered. God wilt give us either the particular blessing which we ask, or, if that would not be good for us, something still better. When we crave relief from present suffering we may get instead, as Paul did (2 Corinthians 12:7-10), the power of higher moral endurance. II. THE CASE OF THE LIGHT-HEARTED. (Ver. 13.) Sorrow and joy constantly meet in human life. There are many people who are "cheerful:" some, because they are in easy circumstances; others, because they are of a buoyant disposition. Now, a Christian ought to keep his hilarity from running to waste by expressing his gladness in praise. Cheerfulness naturally overflows into song. And the believer is to use as the vehicle of his joy, not the favorite ditties of the worldly man, which are often full of levity and sometimes tinged with profanity, but "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." This counsel reminds us that praise is a means of grace, not for the congregation and the family alone, but also for the individual believer. Praise is the art of adoration; and its outward attire is music, the most spiritual of the fine arts. To "psalm" with voice and instrumental accompaniment affords the best safety-valve for joyous emotion. Music "Gentlier on the spirit lies, Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes" (Tennyson.) It "is the art of the prophets, the only art that can calm the agitation of the soul; one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us" (Luther). Those German hymn-writers did well who wrote hymns for young people, housekeepers, miners, etc., to sing, instead of the profane songs of the day. And how thankful we should be for our treasures of sacred poetry - the grand old Hebrew psalms and our Christian hymns! III. THE CASE OF THE SICK. (Vers. 14, 15.) The sick brother is to "call for the presbyters of the Church." This implies that it belongs to the elders, or bishops, to visit the diseased and. infirm. In early times they were to do so, not only to render spiritual aid, but to exercise such "gifts of healings" (1 Corinthians 12:9) as they might possess. It is enjoined, or rather taken for granted, that they would "anoint" the sick man "with oil." Why so? Either because this was the accredited medical panacea in that age (Isaiah 1:6; Luke 10:34), or because oil is a symbol of the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, the Divine Healer (Mark 6:13). If we judge that the anointing was medicinal, the lesson is that in sickness we are to have recourse both to "the prayer of faith" and to the prescriptions of an enlightened pharmacy. If, however, we regard it as symbolical - perhaps the better view - in that case it would remind all parties that the miraculous cures were effected only by the Holy Spirit, whom the Lord Jesus had given. And so the apostle expressly says that the anointing is to be done "in the Name of the Lord," and that "the prayer of faith" which accompanied it would be followed by a cure. The gift of healing was granted to the apostles as a temporary aid in the work of founding the Christian Church. At first, before the gospel was sufficiently understood, signs and wonders were needed as helps to faith. This gift would cease with the death of the last person who had been endowed with it by the last of the apostles. The injunction to use oil as a symbol was, therefore, only temporary. Many, however, have judged otherwise. 1. Roman Catholics, who base their rite of extreme unction upon this Scripture. But that so-called sacrament differs entirely from the ordinance before us. Here, it is the elders; there, a priest. Here, it is a sick man who is to be restored to health; there, one who is about to die. Here, the object of the anointing is the recovery of the patient; there, it is to prepare him for death. 2. The "Peculiar People" in England, and the "Tunkers in the United States, who in times of illness still rely upon this unction and prayer, rejecting all medical advice. At Mannedorf, in Switzerland, Miss Dorothea Trudel for many years superintended an establishment in which prayer was employed in preference to medicine for the cure even of the most serious diseases. And at Bad Boll, in Würtemberg, Pastor Blumhardt has prosecuted upon a large scale a similar enterprise. Hundreds of cures have been authenticated as having been wrought in these institutions. What, then, are we to say to this? First of all, that the promised recovery is doubtless connected in ver. 15, not with the anointing, but with the prayer, and with the faith which breathed in it. If there were faith on the part of the praying presbyter, and of the sick brother himself, his sickness would be healed; and his sins, of which perhaps his disease was a punishment, would be forgiven. But again, although we do not now look for evidently miraculous cures, the prayer of faith" still pierces the supernatural; and thus it is as reasonable now as ever to pray for the recovery of the sick, provided also we diligently use, at the same time, the best physical means of cure; it is a Divine law, in every department of life, that we must employ the means if we would secure the blessing. During sickness, therefore, we must pray as if all depended upon player; and avail ourselves of medical skill as if we had no other resource than that. But what Christian can doubt the efficacy of prayer as a means of cure? If Jesus Christ and his apostles could heal the sick, may not our Father in heaven still, although in occult ways which medical skill cannot trace, touch the secret springs of human life? and may he not do so in answer to the prayers of his own people? Certainly diseases are under law. But even a medical man has some power to direct the action of the physical laws of disease. And is not the power of the Lawgiver greater still than that of the most eminent physician? Is it not literally omnipotent? LESSONS. 1. Prayer, although by no means of the nature of a charm, is a real medicine for sickness. 2. While this is true, the supreme end of prayer is the attainment of spiritual blessing. 3. We should therefore ask more earnestly for the forgiveness of sins than for temporal mercies. - C.J. Parallel Verses KJV: Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. WEB: Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises.