It is remarkable to me to think about myself before I became a Christian. I was one of these men! I was seeking out false doctrines, thinking them to be Truth. I was loving the worthless things of this world, thinking I had it all. I had a nice car, nice apartment, was going to school for something I loved (and still love), had a good number of friends and was going to parties and socializing every night of the week, I even had some nice things to fill that apartment. Yeah, I was a poor college kid, but I thought I had it made! I wonder what the lives of these individuals were to whom David was speaking in Psalm 4:2. Were they like I was back then? I have a feeling they were because the vast majority of those outside of Christ are the same way today, they think they have it all. Don't believe me? Go into your neighborhood and knock on a few doors. When the residents answer ask them if they are happy in their lives. I bet the majority will say something to the effect of, "Yeah, I'm pretty happy. I mean, I wish I could make some more money or could have better relationships with my friends or family but overall I'm happy." Now ask them, "Are you happy with your relationship to God?" I have a feeling that the majority, again, will say yes. What they don't know is they shouldn't be happy in their lives or their relationships with God because they don't have either one (cf. John 10:10)! If they really knew they would be ashamed of their actions. If they really understood they would leave the worthless world and turn to the worthy Lord.
Think about it, David was a righteous man (1 Sam. 13:14) who wrote Psalm 1 so he would have had religious people all around him in places of counsel. He had his good friend Nathan beside him (cf. 2 Sam. 12). And yet he was still aware that the world as a whole was against God and didn't care about the truth but wanted to follow after their own ways of pleasing God which would result in nothing more than vain worship (Rom. 1:18-21). So because of this David wanted to ask the world, "How long are you going to try it your way to no avail?"
So the question is, how long are you? He has the way and He's given it to us, so how long are you going to sit there and try to tell yourself that everything is ok when you're really just loving worthlessness and looking for falsehoods?