Lyrics Page

Wood and Nails

By The Porter's Gate + Audrey Assad + Josh Garrels

2,983 views Oct 9, 2026 updated Work Songs: The Porter's Gate Worship Project, Vol. 1 (Live) album Verified editorial review

Song Meaning

The Porter's Gate, with Audrey Assad and Josh Garrels, wrote “Wood and Nails” as a song for workers. It calls Jesus the “humble carpenter, down on Your hands and knees,” and asks him to look at his handiwork and “build a house so You may dwell in me.” The work he did had “nothing but wood and nails in Your scar-borne hands.”

The second section prays for a calling that includes both labor and praise. “O show me how to work and praise, trusting that I am Your instrument.” The singer asks the “loving laborer with the sweat upon Your face” to “build a table that I too may join You in the Father's place.” The last verse looks ahead to resurrection: “The dead will rise and give You praise, wood and nails will not hold them down.” Wooden tombs will be turned into “flower beds,” and “swords bent down into plowshares.”

Jesus as a carpenter is Mark 6:3. Swords into plowshares is Isaiah 2:4, and the end of the curse and of death is Revelation 21:4.

Lyrics Verified by Editorial Team

O humble carpenter, down on Your hands and knees

Look on Your handiwork and build a house

So You may dwell in me

So You may dwell in me


The work was done with nothing but

Wood and nails in Your scar-borne hands

O show me how to work and praise

Trusting that I am Your instrument


O loving laborer with the sweat upon Your face

Oh, build a table that I too may join You

In the Father's place

Oh, in the Father's place


The work was done with nothing but

Wood and nails in Your scar-borne hands

O show me how to work and praise

Trusting that I am Your instrument


The kingdom's come and built upon

Wood and nails gripped with joyfulness

So send me out, within Your ways

Knowing that the task is finished

The dead will rise and give You praise

Wood and nails will not hold them down

These wooden tombs, we'll break them soon

And fashion them into flower beds

The curse is done, the battle won

Swords bent down into plowshares

Your scar-borne hands, we'll join with them

Serving at the table You've prepared

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