In this cantata Buxtehude sets a text that is a pseudo-Augustinian adaptation of Psalm 42:2-3. The work is scored for tenor, two violins, and continuo. The form of this cantata is unusual, but not unique in the repertoire of Buxtehude and his contemporaries. The entire work is built above a two-measure ostinato bass. The violins and the tenor sometimes alternate, sometimes playing contrasting material at the same time, and sometimes creating a three-part equal-voiced polyphony. The writing is not that different from what is found in the ostinato sections of the sonatas Buxtehude wrote for violin(s) and viola da gamba.

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