Sunday music spot: "Lord, if I have only you" by Buxtehude

The lyrics of this motet, composed by Deiterich Buxtehude in about 1668 and sung here by Laura Heimes,  are inspired by Psalm 73 (verses 25 and 26) and are as follows:

Herr, wenn ich nur dich hab, 
so frag ich nichts nach Himmel und Erden, 
wenn mir gleich Leib und Seele verschmacht. 
So bist du doch Gott allezeit meines Herzens Trost und mein Heil. 
Alleluja. 


The first line is sometimes translated from the German as "Lord, if I have only you," hence the title of this post, but I prefer to refer back to the original psalm. 

Here are those verses as they were translated from the original Hebrew to English in the King James Bible:

"Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.

My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."


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