Cantata no. 137: Lobe den Herren, BWV.137

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren (Praise the Lord, the mighty King of honor), BWV 137, in Leipzig for the twelfth Sunday after Trinity and led the first performance on 19 August 1725. The chorale cantata is based on the hymn by Joachim Neander, a general song of praise published in 1680.

Bach composed the cantata in his third year in office as Thomaskantor in Leipzig. He set the unchanged text of the hymn to music, structuring the cantata in five movements, with choral outer movements framing three intimate arias. He scored it for four vocal soloists, a four-part choir, and a festive Baroque instrumental ensemble of three trumpets with timpani, two oboes, strings and continuo. The chorale melody is present in all of the movements, in varied treatment.

Bach used the second movement for his Schübler Chorales, and made the closing chorale, which unusually features independent parts for the trumpets and timpani, also part of a 1729 wedding cantata.