The chorale that Buxtehude sets in BuxWV 224 has the very same melody as Erschienen ist der herrlich Tag. It is an Easter chorale giving thanks for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The first verse of the chorale reads as follows: "We thank thee Lord Jesus Christ, that you were raised from the dead, and destroyed the power of death bringing us once again to life, Alleluia." Buxtehude places the chorale melody in the soprano range with some embellishment. Also before the entrance of the chorale melody in the soprano the three other voices each enter in fugue-like imitation using material from the first phrase of the chorale. This process is also known as vorimitation. Before each phrase of the chorale Buxtehude also includes a brief reference to the chorale tune in another voice besides the soprano. Typical of Buxtehude, always playing with elements of musical rhetoric to paint musical pictures of things happening in the text, he ends a prelude dealing with the subject of the raising of the dead with an ascending flourish gesture in the top voice of the piece.

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