 The hymn is also penitential.Bach later used it as the basis for the cantata , where the words form a counterpart to the tax collector's prayer in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, the gospel reading for the eleventh Sunday after Trinity.In his Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, Sir John Eliot Gardiner performed and recorded the work with cantatas for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity, but it is not known for sure when in the liturgical year Bach performed it, and there has been speculation that it was written for a special occasion.