Psalm 69:6-7–Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord God of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel. 7 For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face.
 
There are some things we are guilty of doing that keeps us from really praying this prayer, because it betrays the context of what David was meaning.  The context David is expressing in this Psalm is because he is being unjustly attacked by people.  Whereas if we brought trouble on ourselves, sometimes part of our discipline is to bear the shame that comes with it…
From this prayer we see David’s heart, in that he thinks about other people, and how they might be discouraged in their own faith by seeing people dishonor him.  Obviously people knowing his reputation as godly, they could “believe” the dishonor he is receiving must be deserved.  Concluding that if such an influential man of God has “blown it”, that could discourage their confidence and faith.
But David doesn’t think to run to everyone to try and clear his name, for the sake of his own reputation.  Instead he bears this reproach of being unjustly treated, because it pushed him to relate to His Lord.  That the reason he didn’t rush to “clear his name” was because his root of affirmation and hope came from God.  So David was saying, “that what people say that is not true is not the final word”, because if people were, he would do all he could to clear his name and any misunderstanding…
Reputation is based on how people view us, and of course we play a major role in developing a good or bad one.  But sometimes for the sake of evil, our reputation will be tarnished though we are innocent, Jesus’ was!  Yet like Jesus, David didn’t open his mouth to clear his name to people but opened it to God to “reassure his heart before Him”…
Ask yourself whether you are doing a lot of hard work to fix a reputation or image that has been marred?  Of course it is good to do what you can if it is effecting your job status, marriage, and family, but many times it’s just affecting our ego.  When it does, we care more about what others think about the situation than what God does.  So go to Jesus in prayer, and ask for strength to relate to unjust reproaches, He understands!
In His Love, Ld