To Le Pede:

Elsewhere in the Bible (and in modern Hebrew too) where it is meant "in front of me", either "l'fanai" (=before me) or "muli" (=opposite me) is used.

Interesting what you said about the dwelling of spirits. The old Chinese and Japanese beliefs were similar. Biblical Judaism is certainly not the abstract, philosophical, idealized monotheism it is often thought of. In fact all Jewish rabbis were anthropomorphists with regard to God until the 13th century (when Rabbi Maimonides removed anthropomorphism under the influence of Greek philosophy).