Psalms 94:3

"Lord, how long shall the ungodly, how long shall the ungodly triumph?" [Psalm 94:3]. "They answer, and will speak wickedness, they all will speak that work unrighteousness" [Psalm 94:4]. What is their saying, but against God, when they say: What profits it us that we live thus? What will you reply? Does God truly regard our deeds? For because they live, they imagine that God knows not their actions. Behold, what evil happens unto them! If the officers knew where they were, they would arrest them; and they therefore avoid the officer's eyes, that they may escape instant apprehension; but no one can escape the eye of God, since He not only sees within the closet, but within the recesses of the heart. Even they themselves believe that nothing can escape God: and because they do evil, and are conscious of what they have done, and see that they live while God knows, though they would not live if the officer discovered them; they say unto themselves, These things please God: and, in truth, if they displeased Him, as they displease kings, as they displease judges, as they displease governors, as they displease recorders, yet could we escape the eye of God, as we do escape the eyes of those authorities? Therefore these things please God....Some righteous man comes, and says, Do not commit iniquity. Wherefore? That you may not die. Behold, iniquity I have committed: why do I not die? That man wrought righteousness: and he is dead: why is he dead? I have wrought iniquity: why has not God carried me off? Behold, that man did righteously: and why has He thus visited him? Why suffers He thus? They answer; this is the meaning of the word "answer:" for they have a reply to make; because they are spared, from the long-suffering of God, they discover an argument for their reply. He spares them for one reason, they answer for another, because they still live. […]

"How long shall sinners, O Lord, how long shall sinners glory?" The sinner who beseeches God earns pardon; but he who glories in his wickedness is proud: and pride has God for its enemy. This which he says, "how long?" — it is to be understood ἀπὸ κοινοῦ ("in common," carried over), so that we may recognize it thus: "How long shall sinners glory? How long shall they utter and speak iniquity? How long shall they speak, all who work injustice?" Human impatience therefore marvels at the patience of God, and says: I, a sinner, cannot endure sinners; how can you, who are just, bear with them? "How long, O Lord, shall sinners glory?" He did not say, "How long shall sinners sin?" He has a great sin who sins, and moreover glories in his sin. "Shall they utter and speak iniquity?" All sins are cloaked with speech: but pride betrays its iniquity, while it glories in its own wickedness.

"How long, O Lord, the sinners — how long shall the sinners glory?" Human impatience does not want God to have patience. Wretched are we, who want God to be patient toward us and impatient toward our enemies. Whenever we sin, we desire him to be patient; but whenever someone offends against us, we do not want God to be patient toward that man. "How long shall the sinners glory?" It is not enough for them to sin, but they even glory in their sins. The first misfortune is to sin; the second misfortune, or rather the last, is not to do penance. These sinners, therefore, not only do not bend the neck, but freely glory after their sin.

We have discussed the prayer of holy Job; now let us approach that prayer that we have found in the psalms. David spoke out in many passages in regard to worldly vanity; he often asserted that the supposed goods of this world were vain, especially in the thirty-eighth psalm, in which he says, "And indeed all things are vanity, every one living. Although a person walks in the image of God, yet he is troubled vainly. He stores up, and he knows not for whom he is gathering these things."

The character of the enemies they complain against. They are wicked; they are workers of iniquity; they are bad, very bad, themselves, and therefore they hate and persecute those whose goodness shames and condemns them. Those are wicked indeed, and workers of the worst iniquity, lost to all honour and virtue, who are cruel to the innocent and hate the righteous.