This chorale deals with the subject of faith, trust, and forgiveness. The first line of the chorale reads, "I thank you through your son, Oh God for your goodness, that you protected me so mercifully in this night."

Although the chorale is quite short consisting of only four phrases, Buxtehude's setting is somewhat long at just over 150 measures. For each phrase of the chorale Buxtehude makes a fugue using the music from the chorale as the subject for imitation. This type of composition is often known a chorale ricercar. The ricercar was an imitative genre related to the fugue. Ricercari were often multisectional with each section using a different subject for imitation. "Ich dank dir schon durch deinen Sohn" behaves exactly like a four-section ricercar.

© Andrus Madsen, Rovi