“Sweet Hour of Prayer” is a nineteenth-century hymn. Its text, generally credited to William W. Walford, first appeared in print in the New York Observer in 1845, though hymn scholars have long debated who Walford actually was. The tune most often sung with it was written by William B. Bradbury around 1860.
The hymn treats prayer itself as a refuge: an hour set apart from the cares of the world, when the believer can lay every want and grief before God. Each verse returns to the title phrase as both a comfort and a promise.
The hymn passed from church hymnals into the gospel repertoire of bluegrass bands, where it suits close harmony singing.
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