The words to Fill Your Hearts are written by Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926) and based (very loosely it would seem) on the words of Psalm 147 which begins “Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.” Dudley-Smith’s words are often sung to the tunes Regent Square, Rhuddlan, and Beethoven’s Ode To Joy which we sing it to.
Timothy Dudley-Smith is a former Archdeacon of Norwich and then as Bishop of Thetford. He has written over 400 hymns including Fill Your Hearts and Tell Out My Soul (usually sung to the tune Woodlands).
Beethoven adapted Friedrich Schiller’s poem An die Freude for the fourth movement of his Ninth Symphony which was the first “choral symphony” by any major composer. Beethoven was already almost completely deaf when he composed the Symphony. Nevertheless he tried to conduct it at its premiere, the orchestra following their usual conductor and ignoring Beethoven’s directions as he could not hear what was being played! The premiere was in Vienna where Beethoven was extremely popular. Many of Vienna’s finest musicians participated and the audience interrupted the piece many times with ecstatic applause. Eventually Beethoven was turned round so that he could see the audience’s reaction, as he couldn’t hear them.
Here is a clip from the fourth movement of the 9th, with Ode To Joy 7 minutes in.