When Paul Gerhardt wrote "Nun danket all und bringet Ehr", he was 40 years old, had completed his theological studies but had not found a suitable position as a pastor yet.

[3] The same passage was the basis for the 1630 hymn "Nun danket all Gott" by Martin Rinckart, and several compositions of the 17th century.

[3] For the Lutheran Gerhardt, music was an image of heavenly bliss, and the laws of composition an image of the order of creation ("Als überzeugtem Lutheranerwar für ihn die Musik gleichsam ein vorweggenommenes Abbild himmlischer Herrlichkeit, die musikalischen Gesetze Sinnbild für die göttliche Ordnung der Schöpfung"),[5] as he expressed in stanzas eight to eleven of his "Geh aus, mein Herz, und suche Freud".

[5] "Nun danket all und bringet Ehr" was published by Johann Crüger who was the church musician at the Nikolaikirche in Berlin.

[5][6] It appeared in Crüger's hymnal Praxis pietatis melica in the (lost) 1647 edition, among the first 18 songs by Gerhardt to be published, which also include the Passion hymn "Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld", the Easter hymn "Auf, auf, mein Herz, mit Freuden", the morning song "Wach auf, mein Herz, und singe", and the evening song "Nun ruhen alle Wälder".

[5] The hymn was sung to conclude all-day peace celebrations in Leipzig on 21 March 1763, for the Treaty of Hubertusburg.

Translations, which follow the rhythm rather than the literal meaning, were made by Pamela Dellal[9] and Charles Stanford Terry.

[1] When Crüger published "Nun danket all und bringet Ehr" in the 1647 edition of his hymnal Praxis pietatis melica, it was possibly without a melody.

[10] The hymn is part of the Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch with the melody of "Lobt Gott, ihr Christen alle gleich".

It is this melody that Johann Sebastian Bach set to close his cantata Dem Gerechten muß das Licht, BWV 195.

[12] Ulrich Metzner composed Toccata sopra 'Nun danket all und bringet Ehr' in 2009.