“The Devils in the detail” ever heard that quoted to you?   I am not sure why the statement is such perhaps this is where we miss out, or is it that where we get caught out in the work necessary involved in detail?     By what I can tell, it actually means that small things in plans and schemes are often overlooked and they are the things that can cause serious problems later?  Like many proverbs which involve the devil, it is meant to sound a note of caution. It may also be used to excuse or explain the obfuscation of an otherwise very simple project or task, now that’s a new word to look up!.

In one sense, one might say “the devil’s in the details” to refer to small but ultimately important components of a larger task.  For example, performing a scientific experiment in a laboratory is a hugely involved task which can sometimes be highly dangerous. A small error at the beginning can translate into a useless experiment at the end, so experimenters are reminded that the devil’s in the details. This reminder is intended to encourage the scientists to check their work, and to be thorough and careful in the lab.

But really I would suggest to you that this is far from the truth and it’s not the devil there, but “God is in the detail”, that all life is detailed through a wonderful and marvelous Father and not some other.     It is rather a miss statement that is a distraction,  it is actually quoted incorrectly, there is a great in the detail of your life, from time to time we have to be reminded of this fact that so easily gets away from us.

The Psalmist reminds us of the very fact that  GOD IS IN THE DETAIL and none other, some times we just end up not seeing God but I can assure you God is.   It is a wonderful truth  that we need  to be reminded of, especially in our society today.     We are reminded loudly and clearly that our Father, God is in the detail.    It is so simple yet we forget, if we could grasp it and live by this simple truth,  it would be transformational.

God is there, God made us wonderfully and we cannot ignore him,  this is the Psalmist in Psalm 139:13-18 he wants everyone to know that God is in your intimate moments, in your beginning, in every detail and continues throughout your life. To be able to see and realise that God is in every detail brings great security and challenges us to step out into great adventures.

This is one of the greatest passages of literature about the miracle of human conception and birth, Eugene Peterson once said “in the presence of birth we don’t calculate – we marvel.”     This small thought is here to trigger you to discover God in the detail of your life.  There is no devil there but there is a God who is intimately interested in every bone formed, every bend of every artery intrinsically weaving, embroidering each one of us and each one of our lives. What a tragedy to miss this truth that God is there, embroidering the pathways of our life before we even walk, God is in the detail!

He planned and determined our days (V16)  which includes the length of our lives (Job 14:5)  and the tasks that God wants us to perform (Eph 2:20; Phil 2:12-13).    These plans coming from a loving God with a loving heart planning all the very best for us (Rom 12:2).   Let us fix in mind and settle on the security of this confession of God is in the detail!

This simple confession, God is in the detail, displays that the Psalmist has the most mature individual faith in the Old Testament, it also indicates that the writer has the clearest anticipation of the life to come. God is in the detail means unbroken companionship, intimacy, detailed knowledge and understanding, we can’t go anywhere to hide from God.

You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.

Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.

The security of “…you know…” is wonderful and life without it would be all to pot I think.    The knowledge of you knowing is a gift to you and me, a gift of God that he knows, that there is intimacy in his knowledge that there is detail, there is minute inspection in Fathers knowledge.   This is too wonderful for me the Psalmist says and it how great that a great mighty God can have such detail intimate working in you.

You know me inside and out

You know every bone in my body

You know exactly how I was made

You know me – every – exactly  its marvelous, what and who you are with this insight, more than that onward interest.   Great God I want to shout, wonderful  Father, I want to cry  help me as i throw my self back on you  every moment of every day.

God saw every detail.    God pre-recorded all the days of the psalmist before he was even born. This statement may mean that God determined how long he would live, but in view of verses 1-4, it more likely refers to everyday details. God marvelously planned out his life.

Okay where do we go to from here, daily confession that God is in the detail. As we awake, as we journey to work, as we start every day, as we deal with the detail of life we discover God is in the detail and it will change the way we look, change the way we work, change the way we treat life, in the small  things, realise God is there, God is working, and this is his way of displaying his intimacy.