I am attempting to display a modal with results of a php query, after a button is submitted, but the modal flashes onto the screen, instead of remaining until it is manually closed, due to the fact that submitting a form refreshes the page.

<script>
var modal = document.getElementById("myModal");
var btn = document.getElementById("submitForm");
var span = document.getElementsByClassName("close")[0];
var form = document.getElementsByClassName("myForm")[0];

btn.addEventListener('click', openModal);
function openModal() {
    form.submit();
    modal.style.display = "block";
    console.log("shiet");
}

span.addEventListener('click', closeModal);
function closeModal(){
    modal.style.display = "none";
}

window.addEventListener('click', function(event){
  if (event.target == modal) {
    modal.style.display = "none";
  }
});
</script>

On clicking the button id=submitForm, I want a modal to pop up, containing the results of a php script. This modal can then be closed by clicking off the screen or by activating closeModal, by clicking a span element.