Thomas Aquinas, on Ps 33:16

“The eyes of the Lord are upon the just: and his ears unto their prayers.”

“Next, when he says, "But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to destroy," etc., the providence of the Lord regarding the wicked is shown. And concerning this he does two things. First, it is stated that divine providence extends to the wicked. Second, how it is different with regard to the good, at "To destroy." He says therefore, "But the face of the Lord," etc. He had said above, "The eyes of the Lord are upon the just." The wicked person could say: if the eyes of the Lord are not upon me, I can sin freely, because he does not see: Job 22: "The clouds are his hiding place, and he does not consider our affairs": Ezek. 8: "The Lord does not see; the Lord has forsaken the land." But it is not so, because "the face of the Lord is upon the wicked": Prov. 15: "Hell and perdition are before the Lord," etc. And he says "face," because it signifies that he looks upon the wicked with a certain anger. But to what end does he look upon them? Surely, "to destroy from the earth the memory of them." This can be understood in two ways. Either because it can refer to the present earth; and thus their memory perishes from the earth in two ways. In one way, so that it is entirely no more. In another way, so that it is bad: Prov. 10: "The name of the wicked shall rot." Many wicked men have sought that their memory remain, and yet it has perished. But if the memory of some endures, it is said to have perished because it is rotten and bad: Ps. 9: "The memory of them has perished with a crash." Or it can be understood of the land of the living. But do not the saints have a memory of the wicked? If they have no memory of the evils they suffered, how then "shall the just man rejoice when he sees the vindication?" Ps. 57. I reply: it must be said that they will have a memory of them, but not for good, because they will not have a memory of compassion and commiseration for them, nor will they pray for them: Lk. 16: "A great chasm has been established," etc. As if to say, even if they wished, they could not have mercy, because they are there joined to God where they can will nothing except what God's justice has decreed: Is. 26: "You have crushed them and destroyed all memory of them."”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.