Rutter wrote both the text and music of the composition to honour Clare College, Cambridge, where he had studied.

Rutter, who has had a long association with Clare College, Cambridge, having read music there in the 1960s and then returning as director of the chapel choir from 1975 to 1979, composed the anthem in 1998 in honour of his Alma mater, setting his own words.

[1] Rutter's text, beginning "May the Lord show his mercy upon you", is a prayer for protection and guidance, when sleeping or awake, in life and after.

[3] A Clare Benediction was published by Oxford University Press in 1998, in versions for different voices and keyboard or orchestra.

[2] It appears on a 2003 collection of Rutter's sacred music including the Mass of the Children, performed by the Cambridge Singers and the City of London Sinfonia, conducted by the composer.