Yes, gloves can help, but there is a great difference amongst folks as to what kind of gloves they like. But, more importantly, are you changing hand positions (moving from the bar to the hood and perhaps to the drops) and keeping your fingers relaxed and your hands loose?
Personally, I like a very thin, non-padded glove. I have very big hands(I can hardly get them into XL gloves) and the padding of some gloves seems to make the pressure worse. But, others like a high degree of padding and "gel" in their gloves.
You can get a wide variety of gloves on any of the web sites. I always get mine on sale and buy a whole bunch at one time. I like the Specialized non-padded gloves.
www.nashbar.com or
www.performancebike.com, for a couple.
Good luck with your biking. I am assuming that you had a good professional fitting so that your bike fits. Also, it is quite common to have all your muscles stiff after your first 40 mile ride. Don't worry too much about it right now.