Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich (He who offers thanks praises Me),[1] BWV 17 in Leipzig for the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 22 September 1726.

It is opened by a verse from Psalm 50, quotes a key sentence from the gospel and is closed by a stanza from Johann Gramann's hymn "Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren".

The cantata, structured in two parts to be performed before and after the sermon, is modestly scored for four vocal soloists and choir (SATB), and a Baroque orchestra of two oboes, strings and continuo.

[2][3] Bach composes some texts that his relative set before, including this cantata, which was written by Ernst Ludwig, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, according to Christoph Wolff.

Bach scored it for four vocal soloists (soprano (S), alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B)), a four-part choir SATB, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two oboes (Ob), two violins (Vl), two violas (Va) and basso continuo (Bc).

[7] The first recitative is secco, as the two others: "Es muß die ganze Welt ein stummer Zeuge werden" (The entire world must be a silent witness).

[1][7] In the first aria, "Herr, deine Güte reicht, so weit der Himmel ist" (Lord, your goodness reaches as wide as Heaven),[1] soprano and two obbligato violins illustrate in rising lines the text "so weit die Wolken gehen" (as far as the clouds soar), adding extended coloraturas on "preisen" (praise) and "weisen" (indicate [the way]).

[1][7] John Eliot Gardiner admires particularly the closing chorale, "Wie sich ein Vater erbarmet" (As a father has mercy),[1] for its "wonderful word-painting for the 'flower and fallen leaves' and 'the wind [which] only has to pass over'".