Our associate pastor chanted the Exsultet beautifully last night. Very simple. We even managed to remember how to chant the responses. Musically, it was the best thing we did last night.
Ps. 140:2: "Let my prayer be set before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice."
It's a gorgeous prayer. I changed to the Byzantine rite decades ago because I couldn't stand what had been done to the Latin Rite, and attended various Orthodox churches for years because in many cases there was not a Byzantine rite parish near me. Now I attend Latin Rite services because, as usual, there is no Byzantine Rite parish near me.
But, getting back to the prayer, this is part of the Eastern vespers service and is stunning. Sing it in the evening or at night with the light setting through the windows and you will be completely wiped out by it.
This year, I read more about the Exsultet and found that the evening sacrifice was offered about the time of Christ's death and was a sacrifice of light (flame) and oil (a lamp), and that the Exsultet was an enormously important part of Christian liturgy in early times. The ceremony where the flame is lit is still called the Lucerniam, the time when the lights are lit, and this was what the evening sacrifice was called in the first days of the Church.
The chant you refer to is used during Presanctified Liturgies on Wednesday nights during Great Lent:
"Deacon: Bless, Master, the incense.
Priest: + We offer You incense, O Christ our God, for a perfume of spiritual fragrance. Receive it upon Your heavenly Altar, and send down upon us in turn the grace of Your all-Holy Spirit.
Deacon: Amen.
Lord, I Call
Psalm 140 (141):1-2
People: Lord, I call upon You, hear me.
Hear me, O Lord.
Lord, I call upon You, hear me.
Receive the voice of my prayer, when I call upon You.
Hear me, O Lord.
The Deacon then censes the Priest two times and begins the Great Censing.
Let my prayer arise,
in Your sight as incense,
and let the lifting up of my hands
be an evening sacrifice.
Hear me, O Lord.
10. Bring my soul out of prison
that I may confess Your name,
9. The righteous are waiting for me
until You reward me.
8. Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord;
O Lord, hear my voice.
7. Let Your ears be attentive
to the cry of my prayer.
6. If You, O Lord, should take note of our sins,
O Lord, who would survive?
But with You there is forgiveness.
5. For Your name’s sake, O Lord, I wait for You,
my soul waits for Your word,
my soul hopes for the Lord,
4. from the morning watch until night.
From the morning watch
let Israel hope for the Lord.
3. For with the Lord there is mercy
and with Him there is great redemption.
And He will redeem Israel
from all his sins.
2. Praise the Lord, all you nations,
praise Him, all you peoples!
1. For great is His mercy to us,
and the truth of the Lord continues forever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, ...now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.