"Was willst du dich betrüben" (Why do you want to distress yourself) is a hymn in seven stanzas by the German Baroque poet, Lutheran minister and hymn-writer Johann Heermann.

(O Christ, our true and only light), among "Songs of Tears" in a section "In the Time of the Persecution and Distress of Pious Christians", and "Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen", "The Cause of the Bitter Sufferings of Jesus Christ, and the Comfort of His Love and Grace", which Johann Sebastian Bach chose as the first chorale in his St Matthew Passion.

A fourth edition of the volume in 1644 contained "Jesu, deine tiefen Wunde" (O what precious balm and healing), "Consolation from the wounds of Jesus in all manner of temptation.

[3] These hymns have been described as "the first in which the correct and elegant versification of Opitz was applied to religious subjects, ... distinguished by great depth and tenderness of feeling, by an intense love of the Saviour, and earnest but not self-conscious humility".

This look at the individual differs from Martin Luther's approach in his hymn "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"), written a century earlier, which covers a similar topic: trust in God against adversaries including Satan, called Teufel (devil) by Luther.

The final stanza includes as the fifth line "O Vater, Sohn und Geist" (Oh Father, Son and Spirit) as a miniature doxology.