During Bach's first two years as cantor in Leipzig (1723 - 1724) he expended great energy in building up two annual cycles of cantatas. The end of 1725 saw the start of a period of considerably less activity in this field; the composer turned instead to the performance of cantatas by other composers, notably his cousin Johann Ludwig Bach—18 of whose cantatas are known to have been performed in 1726. The reason for this may partly have been Bach's planning of the St. Matthew Passion, the first version of which was probably given in 1727, and on which he is now believed to have started work as early as 1725. The four extant cantatas (the others are Nos. 110, 57, and 28) from the latter part of this year are all for the Christmas season; BWV151 ("Sweet comfort, my Jesus comes") is for the third day after Christmas. The text by the Darmstadt court poet Georg Christian Lehms (whose poetry Bach also set in cantatas 110 and 57) does not draw on the gospel for the day, but is instead a consideration of the Christmas Epistle (Hebrews chapter 1) forecasting the birth of Jesus. The cantata was first performed on December 27, 1725. It dispenses with an opening chorus (perhaps, as one authority has suggested, to give the boys a rest after the hectic Christmas period), opening instead with a soprano aria considered by J. G. Whittaker to be "one of the most supremely beautiful in the whole range of cantatas." It is lightly scored for flute, violins, viola, and continuo, while the radiant solo part considers the "sweet comfort" of the coming of Christ. In keeping with the exhortation for "heart and spirit to rejoice," the central section is more animated. After a bass recitative, the second aria is allotted to the alto. If not quite as memorable as the soprano aria, it also possesses considerable, if reticent beauty, this time in the minor mode. A short recitative for tenor leads to the final number, a simple chorale harmonization of the hymn "Lobt Gott, ihr Christen allzugleich" (1560) by Nikolas Herman. The original autograph score and parts survive and are today housed in the Kunstsammlungen der Veste in Coburg.

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