James asks two short questions so that every reader can find himself in one of them. The first reaches anyone who is "afflicted," which Barnes takes broadly as "suffering evil of any kind." Gill notes that God's people "are commonly a poor, and an afflicted people," and these readers had just been told to endure hardship patiently (James 5:7-11). The second question reaches the one who is "merry," which Barnes explains as cheerful or pleasant in mind. Neither condition is left on its own. James points both the hurting and the glad toward God.

James answers each question at once. To the afflicted: "let him pray." To the merry: "let him sing psalms" (James 5:13). He then carries the theme of prayer forward. The sick are to call the elders to pray over them (James 5:14), "the prayer of faith shall save the sick" (James 5:15), and all believers are to "pray one for another" (James 5:16). He closes the thought with Elijah, a man "subject to like passions as we are," whose prayers were answered (James 5:17-18).

James wrote "to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad" (James 1:1), Jewish believers living far from their homeland. In the verses just before this, he called his readers to patience (James 5:7-8) and held up the prophets "for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience" (James 5:10).

"Afflicted" translates the Greek verb kakopatheo, which Thayer's lexicon defines as to suffer or endure evils, hardship, or troubles. It also appears in Paul's second letter to Timothy, where the KJV renders it "suffer trouble" (2 Timothy 2:9) and "endure afflictions" (2 Timothy 4:5). "Sing psalms" is one Greek word, psallo. According to Thayer's, it first meant singing to the music of the harp, and in the New Testament came to mean singing a hymn in praise of God. Paul uses the same verb when he says, "I will sing with the spirit" (1 Corinthians 14:15).

This verse shows that no season of life is outside God's reach. Trouble is a reason to pray, and gladness is a reason to praise. Barnes observes that God "only can remove the source of sorrow," and that praise is the natural response of a cheerful heart: "Praise is appropriate to such a state of mind." Matthew Henry puts it simply: "In a day of affliction nothing is more seasonable than prayer."

The surrounding verses show why turning to God makes sense. James has just reminded his readers that "the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy" (James 5:11). And he ends this section with Elijah, who "was a man subject to like passions as we are" (James 5:17). Prayer is not reserved for the especially holy. It is for ordinary people bringing ordinary lives to a merciful God.