Alright, please turn in your Bibles to our text this morning, and that is James 5:13. James 5:13. Okay, let me just read this verse first. “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.” Now let us turn to the Lord for help. Let’s pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we gather this morning and we want to thank You. We want to thank You because You have been good to us. You have delivered our soul from eternal damnation. You have given to us salvation. You have adopted us as Your children. And daily in our life we could come to You and call upon You as Abba Father. Lord, we know that we live in this world of suffering and trials and we know that even this day many people and many of our people, the believers are going through difficulties in life. And we remember especially those infected by the virus. We pray for them. We pray that You will grant them the strength needed. Help their body to build up resistant and immunity. And we pray that they will all recover.

We know that not just people who have been joining us in worship all these many weeks and months and throughout even the past years have been infected, but we also want to remember those who have been joining us online. And though we have not seen them for a long time in person, some of them live far off from here. And we also remember them and pray that You too would grant their body healings. And so now as we come together as Your people, we pray once again for Your blessing. We pray once again that the Spirit may enable us to understand Your truth, to open up our eyes to Your Word and to Your will. And grant us a heart of obedience, for we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Now we are looking at a letter or an epistle. Now this is the epistle of James. The brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we studied this letter, we have been going through a section by section, once in a while I want to kind of zero in and look at a particular subject that the writer here writes about and I think he wants us to think a little bit more. And the verse that we want to meditate upon this morning is verse 13 of chapter 5, of James chapter 5. Now let me first of all point out that here in this verse as we spend some time alright meditating on this verse now that James in this verse speaks of two very different experiences in our life, two very different experiences in our life.

So, in our life even as a Christian, now we must remember that life is not always the same alright- life is never always the same. Now even after becoming a Christian, we don’t say oh, now that I’m a child of God and I’m a Christian, I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ, so life will be just smooth sailing all the way till the end. So that is not promised in the Bible. Now that is not promised in the Bible, although there are people who want to give the impression that that is promised. And that is very clear in this verse alright. That’s very clear alright, what James is talking about two very different experiences in life. Now what are they? Now one is troubles. And so, in the first part of this verse, James asked a question. Remember he is writing to the people of God.

You look at verse 12, James says: “But above all, my brothers (or brethren)”. So, he is writing to believers. He says my brothers and sisters, is there anyone among you suffering? And the word ‘suffering’ there actually means in trouble. I think the NIV translate that as in trouble. Is there any one of you Christians in trouble? So, the first kind of experience in our life. And you can see that James touches on this many times, even in this short letter. Now at the very beginning he talked about troubles. So, in James’ mind, you see trouble is just part and parcel of our Christian experience. And so, he is able to ask and we should be able to ask our fellow Christians, brothers and sisters: Are you okay this morning? Are you in trouble? Are you suffering?

Now that is the first kind of experience that James speak about. As I say, he speaks about that very often because he knows. He’s very honest alright with us, and he knows very well that is the fact with a lot of Christians. So, if you are going through suffering, while you’re going through suffering as a Christian, don’t think that you’re so weird or whatever, so unusual. It’s a usual, normal experience. But then there is another experience that James speaks about and that is in the second line. So, he says:”Is anyone cheerful?”. Is anyone cheerful? And so, these are the two contrasting or different experience in our life. Sometimes we might be in trouble, but thank God not all the time. Not all the time. Sometimes we are cheerful. The NIV translate this as happy.

Is anyone here in trouble this morning or is anyone here happy? It’s not in trouble alright, that’s opposite. And so that is the first thing alright we should see what James is drawing our attention to. Our different experiences in life as Christians. Now not as non-Christians but as Christians. So, some of us this morning are going through some troubles. As I and we have been mentioning and praying about this morning, some of our brothers and sisters have been infected by Covid, who are going through sufferings. Some of them more severe, having pain in the throat and having many days alright going through that experience. Maybe you don’t have Covid, doesn’t mean that you don’t have trouble. Maybe you have some other health issues in your life.

We know that there are people in our midst having health issues in their lives. Well, their health has not been so well. They have to bear with that day in day out and taking medication. Or maybe some of you are going through troubles in your workplaces. You’re struggling in your work, and this life has to be very difficult, not like others. Others maybe not. But maybe you in particular, you find that you are struggling. Alright so you might be in trouble. The others, maybe no. You don’t have a particular health issue alright. You should be happy about that. That’s why James says be happy. Alright any one of you happy? You have no struggles, no particular you know trouble in your work? You have no financial struggle in your life?

And so, some people speak of these two kinds of experience, and sometimes we are having what we call a mountaintop experience. Sometimes we are in the valley of our lives. Sometimes our life is not experienced like a dark cloud over us; other times it is sunshine. Now sometimes we are depressed; other times we are in delight. So those are terminology, familiar and ought to be familiar with us Christians this morning. So back to James’ question here. That’s what James is asking his fellow brethren or brother and sister. Any one of you suffering or any one of you cheerful?

Now he asked this question to do this alright. The reason he asked this question is to help us understand how we should deal with these different experiences in our life. Now that is his purpose alright. So, he asked the question, and then he says: So, what do you do about it or what should we do? If you are in trouble, if you are suffering, what should you do? Or if you are cheerful or happy, not in trouble, what should you do? I think it is so important. It is so important for us to think through this alright because knowing what to do in these different experiences of our life is so very important because this is how we handle alright- this is how we handle the issues of life in our life. At least this is how we should handle this issue biblically.

There may be people outside alright telling us how to deal with these different crises or issues or experiences in our life, but this morning we come to the Scripture and ask how do we deal with this biblically. Alright so there are only two parts like in today’s text. The first is suffering. What do you do, what should you do when you are in the valleys of life, when these dark clouds over you, or where in distress (or here in James’ word:”when you are suffering”)? When you are suffering, what do you do? So, first of all, let us think about the experience that James is talking about here. Suffering, the experience that James is talking about. So, what is James thinking about when he speaks of this experience of suffering?

Now you see the word ‘suffering’ alright- the word ‘suffering’ is a compound word. A compound word means is it is a combination of two or three words. So here is a combination of two words in the original alright. So, in the original is the word ‘kakos’ (meaning evil), and the word pakos’ (which means afflicted or troubled). Alright so when you combine the two words, so it is like afflicted by evil. So that is what James is thinking about here. Now come with me for a while to the psalmist in Psalm 34. Psalm 34:19. Now the psalmist says, Psalm 34:19- “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.”. So many are the afflictions.

So, I think that is the idea here. That is what James has in mind when he thinks of this particular experience of ours- affliction or being afflicted by evil or to suffer evil. And that’s the other way alright, compound word, suffer evil or afflicted by evil or simply you’re in trouble. And so, there’s all these different expressions or different words used to speak of this particular experience. And then we think about the afflictions that Christians may go through in life. They say we as Christians go through troubles alright sufferings. We may be afflicted by evil, but what are the kind of afflictions or troubles that we may go through?

Now I think James uses this and he has a whole range of this experience in mind, now this experience of suffering in mind. So not just one kind of suffering, if you have Covid this morning, it’s only one of the many types of afflictions you might suffer. If you don’t have Covid, doesn’t mean that you are perhaps not in suffering alright not afflicted by evil. So, James has maybe a whole range in mind that we Christians may experience. Now first, let’s think of natural troubles. Natural troubles. Turn with me to what Paul writes in Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, and look at verse 19. Romans chapter 8. So let me read beginning in verse 19.

Now Paul writes: “For the earnest expectation of the creation For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons (or the children) of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labours with birth pangs together until now.”. Now what is Paul talking about here?

Now Paul is talking about the world that we live in, he is speaking of the creation of God and he is telling us that the whole creation of God at the moment as he says in verse 21 is under the bondage of corruption. In other words, Paul is reminding us that this is a fallen world. This is not the world that God created because the world that God created was a perfect word. The world that God created was a world without sin. The world that God created was no suffering. And so, we are living in a world under curse. So, the world in a sense is corrupted or affected by the fall when men rebelled against God. So, the effect is not just on us but on the whole of creation.

So, what is now happening to the world? We know that many things happen to the world today because of this corruption or because of this curse that is upon the world. So as a result of that curse, today we experience all kinds of what we sometimes call natural disasters like the earthquake and the tsunami and the flood, the tidal wave, the typhoon that we are now seeing hit, beating Hong Kong and parts of China even at the very moment now. You see, that is the kind of world that we live in because we can blame it here and there, but we know that this is the trouble with the world. And this, what we call natural disasters, they affect everybody in the world.

So, when the typhoon comes or the tsunami, they do not discriminate alright. The earthquake does not discriminate. They only you know kill the non-Christians. The tsunami will only drown the non-Christians. No, that is not true. So, what is true is that we are living in this fallen world. And therefore we suffer together with all the rest of the people in the world. And for that reason, we can find Christians being drowned in the flood or being killed by an earthquake and so on and so forth.

And so, we Christians can go through some of these sufferings. Even in all the war that’s going on in the world and all the chaos, we know that there are believers suffering. And so, when James asks is anyone here suffering, now that could be one of the things he’s thinking about. Maybe some Christians now at this moment are suffering because of these so-called natural disasters. Their homes swept away by the typhoon and so on. So, we suffer together with the rest of the world because we are living in a fallen world. Is anyone of you suffering in this sense? So that is perhaps one type of suffering that James is talking about in this particular experience.

But there are other kinds of sufferings in the world that we Christians might experience. There is also what we might call the physical sufferings. Physical suffering, that is suffering not upon our flesh itself. Now we know that because of the curse that we are all fallen creatures. It affects the whole world, but we our bodies are also affected by the fall. This body now is no longer the same. Do you realise that when man was first created, man was not created to die? Now that is not natural in that sense. Sometimes people say oh, people are dying, that’s natural. No, that is unnatural. That’s why when we approach death, we find it you know why? Why should people die? Why should we die? Are we created in order to die?

No, that is not natural. We are not meant to die; God did not create us so that we might die. That is a consequence. That is a punishment. That comes only because we have sinned against God. And that’s why you know now Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Romans. And he says therefore just as through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin, thus death spread to all men because all sinned. That is the reason why we die because there was sin. If there were no sin, there would be no death. So, people die. And we Christians, remember we suffer together. And therefore, you see, we will still experience that death alright because God told Adam very clearly the days that you eat of the fruit of that tree you shall surely die.

In other words, the day that you disobey Me, you rebel against Me, you will suffer the consequence of sin, for the wages of sin is death. The wages of sin is death. Sin, rebellions against God, disobeying the will of God is not of no consequence. So, people can go on and live life. They disregard God. They do not care about His Word. They would not obey Him. In fact, they will go against God. They will go against His Word. That we see all through, all over the world. And the Bible reminds us that these are not without consequence. The wages or debt of sin is death, and that is a punishment where God will punish all sinners and because of that sin is it in us.

So, our physical body begins to decay. So that is the reason why you know when the moment a baby is born- the moment a baby is born, we do everything in our, you know everything possible to prevent the baby from dying. So, remember, the Covid vaccine is not the first vaccine we inject into human alright. The moment the baby is born, a few days later we get one jab. Then another month, we give another jab. Another few months we give another jab. All the mothers know. We bring to the clinic and we start jabbing the babies. Why? Why are we jabbing the babies? Because the baby is dying. We humans are dying the moment we are born. That moment, you see we say we start to grow. Actually we start to die. We are trying to prevent the decay. We are trying to prevent death.

See, our body decays. Our bones begin to age. We are susceptible to all kinds of diseases, all kind of disorder in our body, all kinds of pains. And so along the way we hear people talking about as they grow older. You see as they grow older, they do not grow stronger alright. As they grow older, they grow weaker. They begin to complain about back ache, knee ache, headache, all kinds of aches. Why? that is a fact. That’s the consequence of the whole. Our body begins to disintegrate as it were. There’s this degeneration, the aging process. The illnesses begin to appear in the body. Then there’ll be gout and there’ll be muscle ache, joint ache, migraine and so on.

And so when James asked this question is anyone brothers and sisters, any one of us here suffering, now you might be thinking maybe that is the kind of suffering you are going through at this very moment. Some of us who are older, you can understand what probably James is talking about. Yeah, I’m suffering in this pain, trying to nurse it for many, many years. So physical suffering, that’s another kind of suffering. But there are other kinds of sufferings in life. There is also what we might call the mental suffering alright- mental suffering. What is mental suffering? I think it’s important to think about that because there’s a lot of talk about mental suffering this day. And sometimes we call the mental health alright. Mental health.

I think you think of health as well-being alright, that’s a general you know kind of well-being. Okay, but mental health alright is really about our inability to deal with the pressures of life. So, in a way you know, we have all kinds of difficulties and pressure on us. Now the inability to deal with all this pressure, it could come from studies. That’s like a lot of young people you know have so-called mental health. Why? It’s this pressure upon them. They go to school; the teacher makes sure that they get straight As. They go back home; the parents make sure they get straight As. They go to the neighbour, the neighbour wished to talk about them straight As. Everywhere is straight As.

But there is an utter failure to realise or unwillingness to realise that not everyone in the world is a straight A student. The majority will not be straight As. Get that into our brain. So, if you do not get straight As, it is okay. But nobody tells you it’s okay. Nobody tells you it’s okay. Everybody tells you it’s not okay. You are a failure if you just miss one A alright. You got 9 As instead of 10 As, you’re a failure. If you get 99 marks and people ask you where’s the other mark, well, you see no wonder young people have mental health problem.

They cannot cope. They don’t know what to think. They cannot bear the expectation everywhere, even from those who care for them, who are supposed to understand them very well or ought to understand them and be more understanding with about them. And they are not understanding. They are not understanding. In fact, probably those who should have you know better understanding or understand them better or more caring for them are those who put the most pressures on them. Mental health.

Maybe there’s some young Christians here, you’re going through that pressure. You’re unable to cope. You have no face to see people because you’re not straight As, because you have no education. You’ve got no degree. Why? Because we live for the pleasure of people. Because we live our life in order to please people, not in order to please God. You see, God is merciful. You see, God doesn’t look at us the way people look at us. God is more kind to us than the people on earth alright- God is more kind to us. God doesn’t look down on us. God has mercy. He’s gracious. Grace means it is not about your performance. His love for you, His acceptance of you is all in Jesus Christ.

You see, it is so good to be a Christian. It’s so good to live life only before God. Now that’s how we should live our life. It is God’s pleasure. It is His favour that we want, not the favour of other people. Mental problem as it were. And James might be thinking about that. Young people going through these pressures in life. But older people also in the workplaces and all these rat race and these competitions. Now you see, so James understand that I believe. He said people are going through that kind of problem, affliction alright. It is mental suffering, this anguish as it were.

I think that’s what James is talking about where people feel this anguish, this stress, now having to deal with all these difficulties. Or maybe sometimes your stress alright, the affliction as it were upon you, the mental problem you see is your inability to deal with not just studies as I say or also not just job. Now studies and Job can inflict that upon us, but sometimes your inability to deal with some illnesses. You see in and of itself is not an illness, so-called the mental health. So, we call that the mental illness. In and of itself it’s not an illness, but it is a problem. It is a suffering because of the inability.

So, when Spurgeon, Spurgeon went through depression. And there is a cause to that, and that was his gout problem. His gout, his kind of inability to deal with that pain in his life caused him great distress and depression. He gets discouraged about that. Now sometimes there may be some health issues that we have and we cannot cope with that and it begins to weigh upon us, to weigh upon us. And so, we have this kind of problem, anguish. Now look at Psalm 55 alright- Psalm 55. This is one of the great texts alright to help us understand this kind of a problem that we might be going through. Is anyone of you suffering? Maybe this is the kind of suffering that you are going through as in Psalm 55.

Look at verse 2, where the psalmist cried out: “Attend to me, and hear me; I am restless in my complaint, and moan noisily”. This restlessness. You see some people are so distressed in their life. They are not at peace. They are restless. They are moaning. They say they are moaning. They are moaning away. They are restless. They are trying to find a place to hide. Look at verse 4: “My heart is severely pained within me (or in the other translation it says, it translates as “my heart is in anguish”)”. That’s the meaning of severely pain.

Is any one of you experiencing this in your life where your heart is so weighed down by problems and it is in anguish? You’re in pain. This is not a physical pain as we talked about earlier on. This is about that emotional thing. The pain that is in your heart, and that is difficult. Maybe this is even more difficult than your physical pain. Heart pain is more difficult than your physical pain. When you are heartbreak, your heart begins to break as it were. It’s so painful inside. That is the language here. My heart is in pain severely in pain within me, “and the terrors of death have fallen upon me. (Verse 5) Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me.”.

That is called panic attack. Anxiety, extreme fear where you are wondering where to go and where to hide. You are in terror. You see, the Bible is trying to employ this different expression to try to help us understand something of the kind of pain of suffering one can go through, and here is talking about a Christian. This is the psalmist. This is David himself. So don’t say that the people in the Bible don’t understand us. Don’t say that they’ve never been through that. If you’ve been through so severe depression, read the Psalms. Read the Psalms and the psalmist can tell you I have been through that. And these are the languages that he uses.

And that’s why he says in verse 6: “So I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.”. This is a person who is trying to escape. He wants to fly away to somewhere. He wants to be at rest. Oh, is there a place I can return to? I am struggling. I am suicidal. You know how many times I received messages, sometimes just calls? just two days ago someone texted us alright and he actually texted me this yesterday: I’m suicidal, help me. You see, it’s not just the non-Christians who would experience this kind of trauma, this kind of distress, this kind of suffering, affliction until you see it’s like the psalmist here now let me just disappear from this world. Let me fly away. I cannot bear it anymore.

Now it is possible for a Christian to say things like that. I cannot bear it anymore. It’s too much for me. Now James is talking about that. Is anyone here suffering? You see, the world has no resources to deal with this. The world can come and give us some painkiller as it were to deal with the symptoms of it. It is only the Scripture. It’s only God. That’s why there’s hope for Christians. We have resources that the world does not have to cope with all this kind of disappointment and discouragement and distress and depression. If Psalm 55 is not depression, what is it? What is it? That’s what James is talking about.

Now it has been estimated that fifty percent of the hospital beds in Great Britain are occupied by people who are suffering from mental problems of one kind or another. In other words, it is a serious problem especially now after the, you know after the last two years with this Covid, the people all the lockdown. And following that, economic crisis. People are in poverty. People are at their wits end. There are so many families going hungry, not able to find food. Adding to the health problem is the other crisis that’s going on in the world with the war in Ukraine, and then the supply chain problem, creating all kinds of problems in the society.

And so, it is recognised that we are not just having the Covid-19 you know crisis; we’re having a mental health crisis. People are depressed, discouraged, in distress, and Christians are not exempted. Don’t say oh, we are Christian, we are saved from that. Covid cannot touch me. You know Covid has touched how many Christians? It’s not true alright- it’s not true. Those people will tell you once you become a disciple of Jesus Christ no more health problem. It’s not true. Mental suffering, I believe that’s what James is thinking about.

There’s one more thing I think James is thinking about here. When you think of sufferings, when he was writing to believers, I believe perhaps he is also thinking of spiritual suffering. Now spiritual sufferings are suffering that you experience simply because you are a Christian. That means as Christians we have sufferings that non-Christians might not have. We have this experience of suffering than non-Christians may not have. So, there are sufferings that you have simply because you are a Christian and because you seek to please God and to serve Him. Second Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy 1:8, now listen to what Paul writes here. Verse 8: “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God”.

He is encouraging Timothy to suffer because there are sufferings that we will have as Christians. Now the word ‘suffering’ here is again a compound word, but this time it’s three words alright. Just now you see earlier suffering was ‘kakos’ and ‘pakos’ or ‘pathos’, which means suffer evil. But here is a word. Here is a compound or three words here, suffering that Paul employs and that is ‘soon’, ‘kakos’, and ‘pathos’, Soon in Greek means together. To suffer together with me, suffer evil together with me. But here he said suffer evil together with me because of the gospel, for the gospel’s sake. For Christ’s sake, we suffer for Him. So, he’s speaking of Christian suffering, suffering because we are Christians.

Chapter 2, 2 Timothy 2:8-9. He writes: “Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer”. I suffer trouble “as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained.”. You know how many people in the world today are suffering, are being persecuted because of the gospel? you can read up in some of the missionary side and follow some of the works that the missionaries are doing. And there are missionaries, there are Christian, there are churches around the world, they are being persecuted because they are Christians, because they want to continue to do the work of God.

Now that is what James is talking about. He said brothers and sisters, are you suffering? Maybe not from you know natural disaster. What about your physical body? Are you suffering? Or maybe not physical bodies, you’re still young. What about mental suffering or what about spiritual suffering? Spiritual suffering. They’re suffering as a Christian. In fact, Jesus already forewarned us when He says if you want to be My disciples, you must take up the cross. And He’s talking about suffering. You want to be a Christian; you must be ready to suffer as a Christian because all those who wish to live a godly life will suffer, Paul says.

Now the question then is: What shall we do? What shall we do when we suffer? And that is what James is coming to here. So, what does James tell us? Back to James 5:13. He said: Is anyone suffering? Then he answers alright- he answers. What is his answer? How do you react? How do you respond when you are in trouble? Cry? That is an appropriate response? That is how you respond? Or you complain? Must be that person’s problem, is this problem, that problem. You complain or you curse like Job’s wife, curse God and die. You complain, you say these people’s problem. You cry and then you say it’s God’s problem. You curse God. Is that what James tells us to do, he said if you are suffering?

No, he says here if you are suffering at this moment, he says pray. Pray. How’s your prayer life? Do you really turn to God first and foremost and seeing that He is your real solution? now you might ask why. Why should I pray? Maybe that’s the reason why many Christians don’t really pray when they are going through sufferings. They don’t really pray. Maybe they seek help from everybody else but not from God. Do you wonder why people don’t really pray? The reason, because they don’t really believe in prayer. And the reason is, you know why don’t people believe in prayer? Why don’t people believe in prayer? Do you believe in prayer when you’re in suffering?

Now let me give you a reason why you should pray, give you a reason why James is telling us if you are suffering, you’re going through all this kind of turmoil in your life and depression and so on, pray. Why? Again, you see back to Psalm 55. Psalm 55. As I said that is a depression psalm alright- that is a depression psalm. But thankfully alright- thankfully Psalm 55 is not just a description of a depressed man. It’s not just telling you know. In fact, you read through almost the whole half of the psalm is just description of this depressive state of a person, of the psalmist here. And then when you come to verse 16 alright, there is a turning point, there is a turning point in verse 16 of Psalm 55.

And what is that turning point? It says here: “As for me, I will call upon God”. Now that is exactly what James is saying. As for you, what do you do? But for the psalmist, he said: “As for me, I will call upon God, and the LORD shall save me.”. That is his confidence. The reason why the psalmist turns to God finally. Now as you see in the turning point, he turns to God is because he believed that it is God who can save him from his situation. And therefore verse 17 he said: “Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, for He shall hear my voice.”. He is my hope. I will turn to him. And then in verse 22, so why alright- why pray?

Listen to verse 22: “Cast your burden upon the LORD”. That is prayer alright. Cast your burdens upon the LORD, and He shall sustain you. You see, the promise here is not that He will remove the problem from you. Now that is not always the will of God, but we think that we turn to God then our problem will disappear. That is not always the will of God. The Bible has spoken so much to this subject, even James himself that suffering has a reason, has a good reason. And God will allow us to go through suffering for our sake. It is to make us a better person. Taking it away will not help us.

So do not think that when you turn to God your suffering will disappear. But what happens is this. The reason why the psalmist turned to God in prayer is this. The reason why James asked us to pray is this. It’s because as the psalmist says here: “Cast your burden upon the LORD, He shall sustain you”. He shall keep you. He shall give you the strength, the ability to go through the suffering where Paul could say: “His grace is sufficient for me”. Yes, He will not take this thorn away from me, but God will help me through. That is what we need from God. And then he says that He shall never permit the righteous to be shaken or to be moved.

In other words, He will not let us collapse. He gives us the strength. He shall never permit the righteous to be shaken. The word idea here ‘permit’ or ‘shaken’ is to be uprooted. The picture here is that the tree when the wind blows, now tree may shake, but it will not be uprooted. That is the picture here God. Will keep us. Or in the words of the apostle Peter. Remember Peter said: “Cast all your cares upon Him”. You’re using the same word as a psalmist. Cast all your cares upon Him. Why? Why pray? Why cast your cares upon Him? because He cares for you.

You see, you must remember and you must believe this that God cares for us as His people. He will never leave us nor forsake us. You can go to Him and you can count on Him. You can believe that He loves you, He cares for you, He will sustain you, He will preserve you, He will give you strength, He will not leave you. But you don’t believe in that. That’s why you don’t go to Him. That’s what James is saying here. That’s why we read in the Bible of these people who in time of distress like Hannah, she was in deep distress and she went to God and poured out her soul before God. Those are the words, the expression used in the Bible.

Hannah poured out her soul because she was in deep distress. Or we can think of Nehemiah. When he heard of news back home and he was in distress and he turned to God in prayer. And Paul and our Lord Jesus when He was in deep distress in the garden of Gethsemane, where or whom did He turned to? he turned to His Father. He leaves us an example of what we do when we are in deep distress. When Jesus sweated even blood, He turned to God and He rebuked His disciples how come you cannot even keep awake when I’m praying. Pray.

Have we trials and temptation? Is there troubles anywhere? we shall never be discouraged, take it to the Lord in prayer. O, what peace we often forfeit. O, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer. How well the hymn writer puts it! Why are we still in this position? Because we have not learned to pray.

Secondly, is anyone here happy? Thank God alright- thank God that suffering is not the only experience of the Christian life. So, is anyone here cheerful? Now again, the word ‘cheerful’ here is a compound word alright. It’s a combination of two words and that is eu’ like as in eulogy. Eulogy is a compound word. Eu means good word or that’s what we do in a funeral alright, saying some nice word to people. So, we call it eulogy. And here is eu tomei, that is well-being alright. The word ‘mei’ is our soul or well-being.

So are you, you know how’s your well-being? That’s the idea here. Are you well, in other words? Are you happy? Are you cheerful? Are you good? Now some people wish other, we greet each other: How are you this morning? And we say I’m good, means I’m cheerful. Things are okay alright. Well-being. That is the word there. You see, are you okay? Are you well? Now the Bible actually used this word and it’s translated into the English variously in the Bible.

In Acts alright, in fact it’s translated variously as in Acts 24. The word, the same word is translated as glad. Are you glad? That’s why the NIV translates this word as happy when there’s well-being alright- happy, glad, cheerful. Or in another verse alright in Acts 27 translates that verse as courage, as opposed to fear. Some people are gripped by fear, but here is no, there’s boldness, there’s no fear alright. Or encourage alright also in Acts 27, same word translates. Encourage. So that is what James is talking about.

This morning, are you in this state, no in the other one suffering for either all these other reasons, but are you today well? Are you good? Now are you good? Now if you are cheerful, if things are going well with you, if things are well with your soul, it is well with my soul, what should you do? Have you thought about that? Now we say when you’re in trouble what should you do. But if you’re not in trouble, what should you do? Nothing? That’s our problem you see. When things are going well with us, we do nothing.

But James says no. James tells us to do something. So, what does James tells us to do? what does he tells us to do when things are okay with us? When we have food, when we are healthy, when we have a good job, when we can eat. Now some people cannot eat. When you can eat, you got appetite, when you can travel, when you got money, when you can run, what do you do? Have you thought about that? Well, James says let him sing praise. In fact, the literal word there ‘praise’ means psalms. Let him sing psalms.

So, the KJV translate the word as ‘psalm’. Now psalms really means praise alright. So, the ESV translates as praise. Let him sing praise. Now not what James does not say? James does not say let him sing. Now that’s not what James is telling us to do alright. So yeah, when things are okay, you got money you know, you are healthy you know, you have food, you’ve got a good job, you sing. What should you sing? Just sing a song? There’re many happy songs we sing.

Now that’s not what James is talking about. That is not what James is talking about. That anyone can do. But what James is talking about is specifically this alright. He said let him sing psalms or let him sing praise. Let him sing praise. Now James is thinking about when things are well with you, remember to do this. Remember to praise God. Let him sing praise. So, in other words, let you burst out with that joy of praise to someone. So, James has something in mind when he say let him sing praise. You may say: Why sing praise? Why should we sing praise?

Now Psalms 105. Psalm 105. In fact, in the whole of Psalms you can see praises in the Psalms. Psalms are really praises to God. But Psalms 105, listen to verses 1 and 2. Verse 1:”Oh, give thanks to the LORD! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works!”. What the psalmist is saying is this. When things are well with you, when you’re cheerful, when you’re happy, say let us praise God. Let us remember to give Him glory because all these things come from God. Let us make known to the people.

Or in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter 6, and here is a reminder by Moses to the people of Israel. Deuteronomy chapter 6, beginning in verse 10 when Moses writes: “So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full”, what do you do? You have eaten and are full, when things are well with you, what do you do?

Listen, he said: “then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”. He said do not forget God. That is what James is talking about. When things are well with you, remember as he writes earlier on in his epistle alright in chapter 1 and verse 17 that every good and every perfect gift comes from above. That’s the reason why we must be thankful. When things are wherever you, be thankful. Praise God. That’s the meaning of sing praises. Praise God. Speak of His wondrous work. That is what a Christian must do. In times of blessing, do not forget the One who blessed us.

So how are things with you this morning? How are things with you this morning? Is it up or down? Is it sunshine or dark clouds? Are you in distress or are you in delight? Let’s remember what to do whether in this experience or in that experience. In times of difficulty, remember to pray. In times of delight, remember to praise. Let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we indeed are reminded this morning that our lives are not the same all the time. We know that even as Christians sometimes we are the valleys of our life. We go through those tough patches. Maybe some of us this morning are going through those tough patches in our life and we are in the valleys. We are in perhaps in some kind of distress either because of ill health or other reasons or pressures of life. Teach us, O Lord, to turn to You because You care for us. And perhaps some of us are in delight. We have received much. We are enjoying the good things in life. And help us not to forget You, to remember that all these come from You and to learn to give thanks and to praise You. For these, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.