The Brandon High School marching band in Mississippi found itself on the bench for the school’s first football game of the season after a court order kept it from performing the Christian hymn, “How Great Thou Art,” according to The Clarion-Ledger.

But that didn’t stop the crowd from throwing a Hail Mary and singing it anyway.

After one fan started singing the hymn, other crowd members joined in. And within minutes, all the fans in the stands were drawn together in song, which you can see in the video below.

The band received the ban because of a pending federal lawsuit that was filed after word got out that the band planned to play the Christian hymn, The Clarion-Ledger reported. The band’s director, Tim Cagle, did not agree with the lawsuit, but said in an email he wouldn’t allow the band to play the hymn to protect the school and its district from fines and more lawsuits.

"If we were to perform this show, taking a chance of how it would be perceived by others, and the court deems it is in violation of previous rulings, not only would the Rankin County School District face harsh fines, but also RCSD would be forced to terminate the employment of anyone associated with the decision to perform the show," Cagle said in an email.

But luckily for Cagle and the band, the crowd came to the rescue.

The crowd’s decision to sing the song was so well-taken that the Rev. Franklin Graham praised the high school crowd in a Facebook post:

It began with just one person. After Brandon High School’s band was unbelievably banned from performing “How Great Thou... Posted by Franklin Graham on Sunday, August 23, 2015

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Herb Scribner is a writer for Deseret News National. Send him an email at hscribner@deseretdigital.com or follow him on Twitter @herbscribner.