Selig ist der Mann (Blessed is the man),[1] BWV 57, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach.

The cantata text was written by Georg Christian Lehms, who drew on all the readings and connected them to more biblical allusions.

[4] He intended to use as a closing chorale a verse from Johann Heermann's "Gott Lob, die Stund ist kommen", but Bach instead chose the 6th verse of Ahasverus Fritsch's "Hast du denn, Jesus, dein Angesicht gänzlich verborgen", called Seelengespräch mit Christus (Talk of the soul with Christ), in order to continue the dialogue.

[3] John Eliot Gardiner sees Bach here as the "best writer of dramatic declamation (recitative in other words) since Monteverdi".

In the last aria the line of the solo violin can be interpreted as the passionate movement of the Anima into the arms of Jesus.