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Vesper Prayer - Shenandoah Christian Music Camp

9,826 views • Jun 7, 2025

Description

"Vesper Prayer" composed by Dimitri Bortniansky, arr. Lloyd Kauffman. Sung at the 17th Annual Choral Festival 2024 of Shenandoah Christian Music Camp (VA). Conducted by Lloyd Kauffman. https://www.musiccamp.info/ This piece was commissioned for The Hope Singers 2024 tour, Ivan Godoy, conductor.
The Historic Faith · Hymn Companion

Vesper Prayer

Music by Dmitri Bortniansky

Savior, breathe an evening blessing,
Ere repose our eyelids seal;
Sin and want we come confessing;
Thou canst save, and Thou canst heal.

Though destruction walk around us,
Though the arrow past us fly,
Angel guards from Thee surround us;
We are safe if Thou art nigh.

Though the night be dark and dreary,
Darkness cannot hide from Thee;
Thou art He, who, never weary,
Watchest where Thy people be.

Should swift death this night o'ertake us,
And our couch become our tomb,
May the morn in heaven awake us,
Clad in light and deathless bloom.

Read the full lyrics on hymnary.org

Story Behind the Song

“Vesper Prayer” is commonly associated with Dmitri Bortniansky’s Orthodox-style setting of the evening prayer text, often rendered in English as “Let my prayer arise,” from Psalm 141. Bortniansky was a major 18th- and early-19th-century Ukrainian/Russian sacred choral composer and director of the Imperial Court Chapel in St. Petersburg. The piece belongs to the tradition of Vespers, where Psalm 141 is sung as part of the evening office.

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