The prescribed readings for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany were taken from the Epistle to the Romans, "love completes the law" (), and from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus calming the storm (). The "Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch", which was the standard hymnal in Leipzig since the late 17th century, specifies Luther's "Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit" as one of five hymns for the occasion. The cantata text is based on this hymn in three stanzas, a paraphrase of Psalm 124, published in Johann Walter's hymnal of 1524. According to John Eliot Gardiner, this hymn "apparently, had been sung on this Sunday in Leipzig from time immemorial".