What does Psalm 31:11 mean?

Being persecuted by one's enemies is difficult. It can be even harder, emotionally, to see friends turn away simply to avoid being caught in that same trouble. This seems to be what David had experienced. Either because of physical threats (1 Samuel 19:2; 22:17; Psalm 54:3) or slander (Psalm 31:13, 18; 38:12; 59:12), David's enemies caused his friends to turn their backs on him.

What David describes here is an almost-total rejection. Friends and neighbors are treating him like an object of fear and loathing. They avoid even associating with him in public. In modern English, acting as if another does not exist means the person is "dead to them." In the next verse, David describes himself in a comparable way (Psalm 31:12). He is as rejected as a broken and value-less container.

In this and other psalms, David foreshadows the suffering of Jesus, who was also rejected. Isaiah 53:3 prophesies concerning Jesus' sufferings: "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not." John 1:11 says, "He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him." Matthew 27:27–31 reports the atrocious way the governor's soldiers treated Jesus when He was their prisoner. Verse 39 indicates that those who passed by Jesus' cross derided and mocked Him.