This chorale prelude is one of Buxtehude's most-played chorale-based organ works. Typical of his chorale-based works the chorale melody appears elegantly ornamented in the soprano range, accompanied by three other voices on a separate manual and the pedal. The chorale text is an adaptation of the Lord's Prayer made by Martin Luther in 1539. Each of the nine verses of the chorale begin with a line from the Lord's Prayer. The first verse reads as follows: "Our Father who is in Heaven, you who considers us all brothers, and allows us to call on you, and wants us to pray: Grant us that we don't only pray with our lips, but that we can pray from the bottom of our hearts." Buxtehude paints the words of the last line of the chorale in a particularly interesting fashion. His ornamentation of the chorale briefly drops down an octave, then on the last note of the chorale he allows the line to ascend, eventually reaching one and a half octaves above the original note. This possibly depicts a prayer ascending from the bottom of a heart into the heights of heaven.

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