In the 1993 Protestant hymnal, Evangelisches Gesangbuch, it appears as number 370 with a melody composed by Johann Georg Ebeling, which was published with the divergent title "Warum sollt ich mich doch grämen" in Pauli Gerhardi Geistliche Andachten in 1666.
The text of Paul Gerhardt's hymn "Warum sollt ich mich denn grämen" was first published in 1653, in the fifth edition of Johann Crüger's hymnal Praxis Pietatis Melica.
Johann Crüger's hymn tune for "Warum sollt ich mich denn grämen", published in the 1653 fifth edition of his Praxis Pietatis Melica, has 6455a as Zahn number.
[5] In 1666 Johann Georg Ebeling published the hymn with a new melody, Zahn 6456a, under the variant title "Warum sollt ich mich doch grämen", in Pauli Gerhardi Geistliche Andachten.
[9] Zahn 6462 is the variant Johann Sebastian Bach used in Part III of his Christmas Oratorio, with the 15th stanza of Gerhardt's hymn "Fröhlich soll mein Herze springen" ("Ich will dich mit Fleiß bewahren") as text.