The cantata in seven movements is scored for SATB soloists and choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of tromba da tirarsi (slide trumpet), two oboes, strings and continuo.

[2] The cantata text is based on the penitential hymn in eleven stanzas "Wo soll ich fliehen hin" by Johann Heermann,[2][5] published in 1630, which is recommended for the Sunday in the Dresdner Gesangbuch.

A year earlier, Bach had composed Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen, BWV 48, for the same occasion, focused on the promise of Jesus to the sick man: "Your sins are forgiven".

[2][3][4] In the following table of the movements, the scoring, keys and time signatures are taken from Alfred Dürr's standard work Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach.

[3] In the opening chorus, "Wo soll ich fliehen hin" (Where shall I flee),[1] Bach gave the tune in unadorned long notes to the soprano, reinforced by the trumpet.

[1] In the first aria, "Ergieße dich reichlich, du göttliche Quelle, ach, walle mit blutigen Strömen auf mich" (Pour yourself richly, you divine fountain, ah, wash over me with bloody streams),[1] the tenor voice is accompanied only by an obbligato instrument.

[4] The instrument illustrates the flow of blood, termed by John Eliot Gardiner the "gushing, curative effect of the divine spring" in "tumbling liquid gestures", and summarised as "the cleansing motions of some prototype baroque washing machine".

[8] The second recitative, "Mein treuer Heiland tröstet mich, es sei verscharrt in seinem Grabe, was ich gesündigt habe;" (My loving Savior comforts me, buried in his grave are the sins I committed),[1] is the centre-piece of the cantata.

[1][3] In the second aria, "Verstumme, Höllenheer, du machst mich nicht verzagt" (Be silent, host of hell, you shall not make me despair),[1] the bass voice is accompanied by the full orchestra with the trumpet as a "ferociously demanding obbligato", as John Eliot Gardiner described it.