Work Song

I'm not sure about the violence/guilt/abuse interpretation, but here's how I see it:

The man has done many wrongs in his life, to the point where he has ended up on the floor, probably close to death, drunk and high and completely ruined. I think he's telling the story of how he was saved, not quite by an angel, but by his love. As the song progresses, it is apparent he believes he owes his life to her, and that having and loving her is worth more than death. As the chorus states, "No grave can ever hold my body down, I'll crawl home to her." And again in the third verse he says "heaven and hell were but words to me," saying that death and anything after it is virtually nothing compared to her saviour. Perhaps he's saying that the death he almost encountered, whether it was purposeful suicide or otherwise, was a permanent problem to a temporary solution and that all he really needed was this his love. As for the title and the first verse, I think he's just telling his story to his fellow workers, when they're having a hard day at work, he tells them he thinks about this woman who changed his life and saved it and how he's ultimately working for her. Therefore, the work is worth it if it helps his saviour.