[2] The cantata in seven movements is scored for alto, tenor and bass soloists, a four-part choir in the chorale, two oboes d'amore, two recorders, two violins, viola, and basso continuo.

[2] Bach expresses the questions of the anxious "soul" in a dramatic way, similar to dialogues such as in O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60.

The first aria speaks of the "sleeping", illustrated by the recorders, low registers of the strings, and long notes in the voice.

[5] The central fourth movement within a symmetrical arrangement is devoted to the bass as the vox Christi (voice of Christ).

[6] Bach composed a similar symmetry around a biblical word in 1726 in Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot, BWV 39.