This cantata is scored for alto, tenor, bass, three violas da gamba, or three trombones, and continuo. Buxtehude sets six verses of anonymous Latin poetry. The first, fifth, and sixth verses are scored for all three singers, while the second, third, and fourth verses are each sung by a different soloist. Each of the solo verses is separated by an instrumental ritornello. The work ends with a polyphonic amen. Interestingly, the instruments never play at the same time as the singers until the amen at the conclusion of the cantata. The Latin text is syrupy sweet in its expression of Jesus devotion. This sort of text may seem too flowery and too saccharine by today's standards, especially for a religious work. This sort of devotional text however, was valued by the Pietists, a branch of Lutheranism which valued warm emotional devotion as a reaction against the rationality of orthodox Lutheranism.

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