Cantata no. 87: Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten in meinem Namen, BWV.87

Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten in meinem Namen (Until now you have asked for nothing in My name), BWV 87, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for Rogate, the fifth Sunday after Easter, and first performed it on 6 May 1725.

It is the third of nine cantatas on texts by Christiana Mariana von Ziegler, with whom Bach collaborated at the end of his second cantata cycle. She used a quotation from the prescribed gospel from the Farewell Discourse and closed the cantata with a stanza the ninth stanza of Heinrich Müller's 1659 hymn "Selig ist die Seele". Its theme is man in the world depicted as a place of tribulation, in need of forgiveness, but with hope to overcome in prayer and love. Bach scored the cantata for three vocal soloists (alto, tenor and bass), a four-part choir only for the closing chorale, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two oboes, two oboes da caccia, strings and continuo.