Sacred work to take original sin in hand (5)
I believe the answer is:
psalm
'sacred work' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how one could define the other.
'original sin in hand' is the wordplay.
'original' says to take the initial letters.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'hand' becomes 'palm' (I've seen this before).
The first letter of 'sin' is 's'.
's' placed into 'palm' is 'PSALM'.
'to take' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for psalm that I've seen before include "Devotional hymn or song" , "Jewish hymn" , "Song - hymn - prayer" , "Sacred poem (written by King David?)" , "Lamps (anag) -- song" .)