How is The Matrix similar to the 23rd Psalm?
I do not mean to suggest that Neo, the messianic character in the film is similar to the shepherd of David’s poem, nor that the sheep of the psalm are similar to Zion’s huddling masses. I don’t find either comparison very plausible or helpful. There is one way, however, in which Psalm 23 and The Matrix are so similar that understanding them correctly requires us to approach them identically. The similarity is not in their ideas but in their form as art. The psalm is a poem and the film is visual art, which means that both rely primarily on images and metaphors to communicate. Both communicate ideas, but not through tightly-woven arguments in which a series of premises and conclusions are presented in a carefully-constructed logical progression. Instead, David, Andy, and Larry Wachowski choose to communicate their ideas through images and metaphors which we are meant to inhabit and experience. We’ve occasionally mentioned in these pages how Bible study skills and discernment skills tend
