The "good hand" is a double-edged thing here, the hand that shelters but also punishes the son shaped by it. The first part of the song describes the hand in its kind aspect, the second in its vengeful one. There are two potential levels of reading to this song - the literal, and the mystical.
In the mystical reading the hand is God: the believer tries to enact the part of the "faithful son", a good Christian, but in his self-righteousness turns from the good shepard to being the wrathful hand judgement on those he sees as dishonouring God.
In the literal, the hand belongs to the speaker's father, the son and father can be seen as players in a story of domestic violence. The son grows in his father's image of manhood, accepting the beatings given to him ("I take my shelter neath a familiar tree", "see what the good hand done"), and just like his father, ends up judging his neighbours for failing to meet his expectations ("I see you've chosen to lose your way/to greed with a clank for nothing") and absolving the father's abuse of his wife, the speaker's mother ("she will understand", "embellished by pain's engravings" etc, the last 4 lines").
The "good hand" is a double-edged thing here, the hand that shelters but also punishes the son shaped by it. The first part of the song describes the hand in its kind aspect, the second in its vengeful one. There are two potential levels of reading to this song - the literal, and the mystical.
In the mystical reading the hand is God: the believer tries to enact the part of the "faithful son", a good Christian, but in his self-righteousness turns from the good shepard to being the wrathful hand judgement on those he sees as dishonouring God.
In the literal, the hand belongs to the speaker's father, the son and father can be seen as players in a story of domestic violence. The son grows in his father's image of manhood, accepting the beatings given to him ("I take my shelter neath a familiar tree", "see what the good hand done"), and just like his father, ends up judging his neighbours for failing to meet his expectations ("I see you've chosen to lose your way/to greed with a clank for nothing") and absolving the father's abuse of his wife, the speaker's mother ("she will understand", "embellished by pain's engravings" etc, the last 4 lines").